


The Voice of Blood

by IvyLeigh



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Angst, Daddy Vader, Dark Family Secrets, Dark Luke, Dark fic, Darth Dad, F/M, Physical Abuse, Sibling Incest Maybe, Twincest, greek tragedy - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-03-24 12:22:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 21,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13811100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IvyLeigh/pseuds/IvyLeigh
Summary: On the eve of his fourteenth birthday, Imperial Prince Luke Vader is expected to choose his future bride.  There is only one he wants.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [The Voice of Blood （by IvyLeigh）](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15562209) by [Euniceyiyang](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Euniceyiyang/pseuds/Euniceyiyang)



> This was a head cannon that's been running through my head for months. I decided to finally lay it down. 
> 
> "The Voice of Blood" is the English translation of "Le Voix de Sans", a concept found in much of the dramas of the Jacobean Era of European Theater (circa 1600). Le Voix de Sans is the concept of siblings who have been parted for many years, only to feel the "call" of their blood between each other and fall in love. As you can probably guess, all these plays ended with blood, death, and madness.
> 
> And remember, kudos are kisses and comments are like Christmas all day, every day!!
> 
> "Tevas" is Sith for "Father".
> 
> "Nuyak Su'us" is Sith for "My Son."

The Voice of Blood

****

**Luke**

I don’t remember my infancy, of course. I only know the story the Emperor has told me, when I would sit on his knee as a small child during our visits to the Throneworld. How the criminal Jedi Obi Wan Kenobi murdered my mother, mutilated my father and stole me to Tatooine, where he planned to train me as a Jedi weapon of vengeance. How Father rescued me from the Lars family and executed them himself as co-conspirators against the Empire. How he then found Obi Wan and captured him after defeating him in a duel and breaking his back with his own hands. How Father brought him to the Emperor, who tortured him daily and in public. Thrown into a bacta tank overnight to be hauled out and tortured again, month after month. Finally, as a reward for his loyalty and valor in the fight against the depraved and power avaricious Jedi, The Emperor allowed Father to kill Obi Wan Kenobi himself on live holonet. His body was then strung up on the Jedi Temple where the populace could befoul it any way they wished.

I envy Father for that. I wish they could have left him alive so I could have my turn on him, but the vids taken during the Emperor’s Justice must suffice. I have watched that dog’s flesh seared from his limbs hundreds of times in my life. It fills me with the same delicious vengeance every time and never bores me. But still, in my opinion, too merciful a death for the man who killed my mother in a jealous rage and dared steal me from my Tevas. 

I only hear that story from the Emperor. Tevas never talks about my mother. I don’t know where they met, I don’t know what their arrangement was. I only know that I am the Imperial Crown Prince Luke Vader, son of the the Sith Lord Darth Vader and Queen Amidala of Naboo. 

My happiest memories are when I lived with Tevas on his Destroyer, the Devastator. He would set me in his lap and put my tiny hands on the throttle of his TIE Advanced, teaching me to fly before I could even talk. When I was three, Tevas taught me to build my first lightsaber. He gave me my own TIE Advanced at the age of six. We would fly over, around, and under the Devastator, cannons set to particle sub- frequency only, and have mock dogfights of our own. 

After training with only combat droids for years, Tevas and I sparred with our lightsabers for the first time when I was seven. He defeated me, of course. But fighting against Tevas changed me that day. Father was a revenant of the Dark Side and his power consumed me, I felt him in every cell of my body. I felt the expanse of the universe itself and a child die on a planet light years away. It almost swept me away until Tevas pulled me back. He held me as I shook and cried in his arms. 

“You know the Dark Side now, Luke,” he whispered through his vocoder into my hair, “You have only touched its power.”

I wanted more. I wanted to be just like him. 

I made my first kill at nine. Father allowed me to behead the leader of an insurgent cell, with my own saber. I closed my eyes and imagined the mewling rebel degenerate kneeling before me was Obi Wan, and sliced through his neck with glee and precision. Father’s pride filled my heart and was sweeter than any candy the Devastator officers would sneak me when he wasn’t looking. He sent the vid to the Emperor, who then broadcast it across the galaxy. Prince Vader, executing justice in the Emperor's name. I became the face my father didn’t have, the golden-haired son of the Might of the Empire. From then on, I was the sole heir to the throne of the Galactic Empire. 

Tevas has no interest in taking the throne himself. He is a warrior, and will remain the Emperor’s Hand. He will be my advisor, my Supreme Commander of the Imperial Military, my Intelligence Czar. Tevas has little need for the trappings of power, he only covets power itself. After the Emperor is dead, he will be Sith Master. He will be the true ruler of the galaxy as it is.

I was ten when he first took me into battle. Another insurgency, this time over Corellia. Remnants of the Separatists had captured the Kuat Shipyards. I flanked Tevas in formation with his two best pilots. I clocked twenty-two kills that day. When we landed, I tore my helmet off and ran to him, red and flustered, heart in my throat, desperate for his praise. He stood beside his TIE Advanced, arms folded, and said, “I was nine at my first battle. My count was 25.” Before my heart could sink to my feet, his pride swept through our Force bond and embraced me so fiercely that I forgot to breathe for a full minute.

That year, a new class had been introduced to my curriculum, that of reproductive biology. Tevas was direct in his teachings. The dry sex education classes I endured were meant to teach me how to produce children only. But that day he came to my quarters was something else entirely. I had been sent to my quarters as punishment after Father was so rudely interrupted by my very stray, very excited, and wholly inappropriate thoughts through our Force bond. Without interrupting his briefing, he followed my thoughts to an air vent directly above the sabaac table in the officers club. Later, Tevas came to my rooms, finding me at my draft table designing a new dampener for my TIE, trying to forget my embarrassment. “Eavesdropping on the tawdry conversations of career military men is hardly an appropriate way for the Heir to the Empire to learn about pleasure,” he’d said, and placed a data pad next to me. He spoke as though he were assigning me homework. “Read those at your leisure. If you have questions, come to me only.” 

I picked it up. There were scores of volumes of classical erotica from throughout the Core Worlds indexed on the screen, some spanning back ten thousand years. Most of these pieces are banned throughout the Empire. Poetry, sagas, manuals, all ten volumes of the Seduction of Zephralia. I remember my face growing hot under his mask’s gaze, and the amusement that came through our Force bond didn’t help either. “You will need heirs. But bastards can be of use as well.” Father’s cape had barely cleared the doors before I leapt up and ran to my bedroom, data pad in hand. I didn’t touch my draft table for three days. 

I am now fourteen. My birthday and my Ascent. I leave boyhood and aspire to manhood. More time on the Throneworld. More time with the Emperor. Less time with Tevas. 

Of course there is a celebration. Years of planning. My Ascent is to be celebrated throughout the Empire for a full standard month. Balls, galas, and parties every night. But they pale in comparison to my Ascent Eve Ball. The entire thing will take up three square kilometers and seven buildings. And I must attend every one of them. 

How else will I find a princess to marry? Because that’s what it really is. 

I won’t be of marrying age until I am nineteen. But any royal son in the Empire, vassal or Imperial, is expected to make a selection of a few possibilities on his Ascent Eve. Doesn’t give us much time to think about it, which is most beneficial and completely purposeful. Alliances do not wait upon courtship. 

I look down out of my bedroom window at the tens of thousands standing under the barrage of fireworks, all waiting for entrance. She’s down there somewhere. Tevas wants a Force-sensitive. I wouldn’t marry any woman who wasn’t. Force-blind women would only have their place in my harem.

Father arrives to fetch me. I look every stitch an Imperial Prince. I wear my blond hair long, to my shoulders. I wear black for the first time in public. A one-shouldered cape drapes my arm. I had meditated as I polished my lightsaber into a mirror sheen.

We walk in silence. Until Tevas says, “She is here.”

“She is? You felt her? Who is she?”

“I do not know. I only felt a whisper in the Force.” He says nothing more. But he doesn’t shield his feelings from me either. And he feels the same sadness that I do, that our life together will not be the same again.

We arrive at the first ball. There they are, already herding the lip of the dias where the Emperor, Father, and I will greet the horde. Princesses, daughters of Moffs and military and nobility. All my age, all of them wearing a small fortune, all of them beautiful, greedy, and ruthless. I despise them, and yet my body responds to them. It’s humiliating. Tevas says it will pass as I get older. 

The Emperor is already there. He slides his eyes over as we enter. The Emperor performs his speech, officially opening the festivities. Now, I am expected to mingle with these offerings. I choose to make it interesting.

Despite still being shorter than the girls surrounding me, I know I am beautiful. How could I not, having seen my golden sky-eyed visage everywhere throughout the galaxy since I was a toddler? This is my first chance to take advantage of it. I lightly scan the dozen girls around me for any Force sensitivity. All blind. It’s no matter. I approach the most beautiful one first, taking her hand, setting a kiss on her fingers. I look up from under my lashes into her violet eyes. Her giggles stop. As I introduce myself, I tuck a stray hair back into her hairdo. And smile. Desire virtually erupts out of her, and her heart pounds through the Force. I could have her, right now. Lead her into one of a hundred tiny antechambers that pitted the Imperial Palace and have her, spoiling her for anyone else. I won’t, of course. And never will, she’s a dullard. But it is a scintillating idea, and this new taste of a different kind of power is sweet indeed. 

Another ball. I play the same game with many different girls. Father vacillates between disappointment and amusement. _***Perhaps The Seduction of Zephralia was not a wise choice on my part.***_ he paths to me.

_***If I am to be paraded about, I can at the very least entertain myself, Tevas.***_ I am answered with mental brush of a sigh.

And the third ball. Three hours have already passed. Bored doesn’t even begin to describe it, and my game is growing tired and too easy. Father and I descend off the dias into this newest bejeweled garden of Imperial chattel when I feel it. Tevas was right. Just a whisper in the Force.

I feel her.

The crowd clears my path as I make my way through the ballroom. Tevas follows. The horde splits near the entrance, and I see her. Toe to toe with Grand Moff Tarkin, eyes flashing, making an angry pointing gesture to the ground. She can’t be older than me, and is actually smaller than I am, but there she is, challenging a man decades older, hands taller and immeasurably more terrifying. Dressed in all white, her gown is far simpler than any of the other girls’, and her plaited chestnut hair is unadorned. Indeed, the only jewelry she’s wearing is an abalone necklace, a common material. A man stands at her side with dark hair and skin, wearing robes of the Alderaani fashion and barely reserved anger on his face. 

I stare at her. While pretty, she is not the most beautiful girl here. But that isn’t why I stare. I am not foolish enough to think this is love at first sight, even at my age. My marriage will have nothing to do with love, it will be about power and dynasty. And as her skin blooms red in anger and she continues her impeccably well-mannered tirade at Tarkin, I see that in her, in this moment.

The Force virtually sings through my veins.

Tevas is strangely quiet for a moment before he paths, _***You never shy from a challenge, nuyak Su’us.***_ “I will introduce you.”

As the last of the crowd clears our path, we approach. Father and Tarkin greet each other and trade latest victories, fully intentioned as intimidation on both their parts. Father finally acknowledges the swarthy man. “Senator Organa.” 

“Lord Vader,” the man responds cooly. Father has talked of the strained relationship between the Emperor and the Royal Family of Alderaan, a faction still loyal to the archaic and mostly impotent Senate, and see it played before me now. 

Father gestures to me. “I present my son, the Imperial Prince Luke Vader.”

Organa eyes me. I wait for his introduction of the girl. Watching his face is like looking at an electrical storm through a shaded window. He tries to mask his discomfort with a stoic expression, but his eyes betray a flurry of thoughts. I grin. “A pleasure, Senator.”

Finally, reluctantly, he gestures to her. “Lord Vader, Your Royal Highness, my daughter, the Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan.” 

I turn to her and offer my hand and a smile. My little game has proven to be quite successful and I intend to continue it. This Princess named Leia looks down her nose at my hand before looking up at me and narrowing her large brown eyes.

She detests me. Completely, wholly, and utterly detests me. Every available young daughter of the Empire has virtually thrown themselves at me, and I have enjoyed teasing their little hopes. But for the briefest moment, my teenage temper threatens my mature charm as indignance flashes. Tevas picks up on it, and puts a hand on my shoulder to calm me.

_***I told you, Su’us.***_

But then, my smile grows. Tevas knows me too well, I never shy away from a challenge. I keep my hand extended. It is only a matter of moments before her game crosses into royal insult, and she knows it. She finally concedes to protocol, and extends her hand. Her voice is not a girl's squeak, but a woman's quiet alto. “Your Highness.” 

I take her hand, but I do not kiss it. The game has changed now. I merely bow my head and look at her face from under my lashes. Soft, round, but her features are strong. Large dark eyes, a proud nose, a firm jaw. The pink that flushes her cheeks through her ivory skin is not from bashfulness, but hostility. I keep my eyes on hers, but allow my peripheral vision to take in the rest of her. She is not grown yet--nor am I-- but I see the promise of fullness and fertility. She has a strange beauty I have never seen before. Our children would indeed benefit from it.

Governor Tarkin approaches. “Your Highness, I offer you my sincerest wishes for many victories in your future on this, your Ascent Day.”

“I thank you, Governor. I have many fond memories of visiting your estates on Eiradu.” I chuckle. “You still owe me that chat about your strategy during the campaign at Salient.”

Tarkin’s smile was thin, like everything about him. “And I intend to pay that debt, your Highness.” I notice the caustic glance he tosses at the Princess. But her eyes are on me, she’s watching me. Studying me. The distaste on her face is joined by guarded interest. She’s deciphering my relationship with the Moff. A natural politician.

I look up at the Senator. “Senator, I would be entirely honored to have a dance with the Princess?” I feel his sudden burst of adrenaline through the Force. I can feel his fear, his cool expression hides nothing. He wants to refuse. I keep my smile, even as I question why the father of a Princess in which the Imperial Prince shows interest would respond so. Any other father here would practically be shoving her into my arms.

He looks down at the girl. “That is Leia’s choice,” he says quietly. I nod, and look at her. I can see the calculations behind her eyes. She has only said two words in my presence, and I already know her mind is brilliant and far beyond her age.

Like mine.

Her father is already cross with her about her argument with Tarkin. Refusing a dance with me would be political homicide for her family at this point. Tarkin is to my left, Father to my right. I’m sure we make for a persuasive picture. 

Contempt practically sparks off her when she says, “The honor would be all mine, your Highness.” 

I take her hand again, lead her out to the dance floor. She is the first girl I have chosen to dance with all night. Thousands of eyes have turned to us, we are the sole couple on the dance floor, cam drones hover and flit all around us, broadcasting the Prince’s dance to the galaxy. Her hand in mine is small, soft. And dry. She isn’t even breaking a sweat. 

The orchestra begins the song for my first dance. I place one hand on her tiny waist, the other still holds her hand. She puts her hand on my shoulder. And doesn’t look at me, just looks straight over my shoulder. But I keep my eyes on her, as I do my smile.

We are a few bars into the dance when I start the conversation. “What was the argument about?” 

She probably expected the pitiful small talk of an awkward teenage boy, not a direct question. Her eyes flick my direction, then immediately back. “What argument?”

“The one between you and the Governor.”

“That wasn’t an argument. That was a disagreement.”

“A rather heated disagreement,” I say with a smirk. The girl insists on looking past me. “So. What was the ‘disagreement’ about?”

Her lips twitch. “The mining of protected legacy worlds in the Western Reaches.”

Interesting. “You don’t approve?”

That’s when she finally looks at me. Her eyes burn. “Those worlds have been protected for centuries. They harbor intricate eco-systems that cannot be replicated on any other world, they cannot be transplanted. What Tarkin is proposing is nothing less than a crime against nature. He would ravage those planets.”

“The Republic protected those worlds,” I remind her. “The Empire has no obligation to continue those protections. Archaic statutes such as those hinder Imperial progress.” 

She scoffs. “You even speak like him.”

“Like Tarkin?” Oh. “You mean like my father.” She was baiting me. “If that was meant as an insult, I’ll choose to take it as a compliment.” She says nothing. I glance at our fathers and Tarkin. “Your father didn’t look pleased with the discussion.”

“I was to refrain from talking about politics this evening,” she said.

“And yet here you are, talking politics.” I turn her slowly as we dance. “Do you make it a habit to disobey your father?”

Her mouth is pinched, her eyes dark slits. “My father doesn’t expect me to jump when he snaps his fingers.” She then dares to look me right in my eyes. “Or kill when he commands me to.”

My smile disintegrates. I don’t know whether to laugh or choke her. This tiny slip of a girl dares speak of Tevas that way? Of me that way? No one has ever spoken to me like this. Her hostility practically seeps through my skin. This Leia Organa is infuriating and reckless.

She impresses me more by the second.

I stop the dance for a moment. The collective gasp from the front row of the gathered crowd amuses me. “You don’t like me, do you?” 

She doesn’t flinch. “I don't know you.”

“But you know my father. Or should I say, your father does. I’m sure his accounts of Lord Vader have sealed your opinion of me as well.”

“I form my own opinions, your Highness.”

“You’ve made that quite plain.” I begin the dance again, don my smile once more. She follows my lead, but looks away. I lean into her ear. “Why are you here, Leia?” I whisper. White anger flashes through the Force at my use of her first name. It’s positively heady. “You obviously despise me, so you are not here hoping to win the attention of the Imperial Prince. So why are you here?”

She draws a severe breath through her nose. “I came for my father.”

“I got the impression he’s not enthusiastic about making a match of us either.”

“He isn’t.” She glares at me again. “But the Emperor decreed that any princess of your Ascent age must attend. If I refused, he would slap sanctions on Alderaan that could lead to a catastrophic effect on our economy. I came here for my father, for my mother, and for my world. Trust me, your Highness, this is the last place I want to be celebrating my birthday.”

There it was. The seed of this resentment. “It’s your birthday?”

She looks away. “Yes.”

“How old are you?”

“I’m fourteen.” My formality slips with a breath before I regain it. She lifts an eyebrow. “Something wrong?”

I smile a little. “I’ve never met anyone who shared my birthday before.”

“Well,” she said, “that’s one thing you don’t own entirely.”

Why is she being so difficult?! I want to strike her. I want to kiss her. This anger mixed with urge confuses me. Damn this body of mine. At this moment, I discover another aspect of Tevas that I envy: His body and mind are beyond these animal wants. Then again, the whole reason for this blasted ball revolves around my animal wants. “I am just pleased that I’m not celebrating my birthday alone, that is all.” She looks at me again. Something changes in her eyes. Anger is replaced by surprise. I sigh. “Is it any consolation to you that I don’t want to be here either, Leia?”

She sighs too. “I’m sure you don’t, your Highness.”

Empathy. I hadn’t expected that. “You may call me Luke,” I blurt. What did I just say? Only Tevas and the Emperor may use my first name. My face is growing hot. It’s at this moment when I realize how lonely I actually am.

But then she scoffs. “May I?” 

I find her eyes, forcing her to look at mine. “Yes.” It comes out as a hiss.

Her lashes flutter. She attempts to recover through sarcasm. “And why have you bestowed that honor upon me?”

I step into her before I even realize I’m doing it. “Because I like you, Leia Organa.” I watch the understanding emerge in her face. She has, indeed, won the attention of the Imperial Prince. I see alarm in her eyes. 

Something uncoils inside me. I touch her with the Force for the first time. When I scanned the other girls, my Force tendrils simply passed through them like they were dark matter. But here, my touch is repelled. The Force itself beams around her but can’t reach her, as though she were surrounded by a membrane. Leia Organa isn’t Force blind. 

She is shielded. 

But she isn’t doing it herself. She isn’t aware of any Force ability. Someone did it for her. To protect her. To hide her. 

And now I’ve found her.

Leia’s lips tremble until she presses them together into a severe line, and she forces that hard glint back into her dark eyes. “You like me? Well, thank you, your Highness. I can sleep easy tonight.”

The music stops, and so does the dance. But before I lead her away, I lean into her ear and whisper, “I hope not.” As I lead her off the dance floor, her once-dry hand shakes in mine.

We come back to Tevas, Tarkin, and Organa. I gallantly hand Leia back to her father. “Senator Organa,” I say, my charming smile donned once again, “I thank you for what has truly been the highlight of my Ascent Eve. The Princess is, indeed,” I glance her way, “unique.”

The Senator nods once. “You truly honor us, your Royal Highness.” I wrangle back a scoff. He doesn’t mean a bloody word of it. 

The Princess turns away from me into her father, and takes his hand. She whispers to him. Using the Force, I am the only one who hears what she says. “Papa, may we please leave? Now?”

“Of course, Lee-Lee,” he whispers back.

Lee-Lee. I memorize it.

Organa acknowledges Father. “Please thank the Emperor for us for his hospitality this evening, Lord Vader. We shall take our leave.” 

“As you wish, Senator Organa,” Tevas intones. He doesn’t bother to inquire as to why, he already knows. As they leave, I watch Leia struggle to keep her pace elegant and unhurried. Barely.

I turn to Tarkin. “Governor, may I have a private moment with my father?”

“By all means, your Highness,” Tarkin says, a quick smirk on his thin lips. His delight, as well as a touch of envy, at how I was able to rattle this willful little princess oozes through the Force. He clicks his heels, snaps a bow of his head, turns and leaves.

_***Tevas,***_ I path to him, _***I do not care to attend any of the other balls. There is no need.***_ I seek his eyes through his lenses. _***I want her.***_

Father regards me for a moment. _***Very well, nuyak Su’us. We shall inform the Emperor, and begin the negotiations.***_ But strangely, he has shielded his feelings from me. It is...troubling. 

_***You don’t approve?***_ I ask.

_***It is a good match. Your betrothal would be an advantage politically. Bringing Alderaan into the Imperial House would force Organa and Queen Breha and any other insurgent factions in the Senate into compliance. Alderaan is a jewel of the Core Worlds that the Emperor would happily add to the Crown.***_

_***But…?***_ I can hear it in his Force voice.

He pauses. _***It is nothing of concern, Luke. Come.***_

The sea of guests once again parts before us as we stride to the throne dias. We take the stairs together before the Emperor. “He has chosen,” Father says.

The Emperor grins. “Well, that was quick. Which lovelies caught his eye?”

“Only one. Leia Organa of Alderaan.”

The Emperor barks-- actually barks-- a laugh. I am stunned. What is it about this particular Princess that incites such strong responses in these men? He looks at me. “My boy,” he croons. “Only you could walk into a field of flowers, and want the one on top of a mountain.”

I smile and shrug. “A treasure simply handed to one is no treasure at all, your Majesty. Isn’t that what you have taught me?”

“Indeed,” he chuckles. He looks to Tevas. “We will begin the negotiations for betrothal and dowry tomorrow. In the meantime, come, my boy. Since you have chosen, it seems it is time to give you your birthday present.”

“My present?” The corvette I was gifted this morning sits in a landing bay within the palace. “But you gave me a gift already, my Emperor.”

“Oh, that was just one of your gifts. I’ve prepared the best one for last.” He rises from the throne, beckoning us. “Come.” 

We leave the pomp and noise of the ball into the dark corridors and make our way to the Emperor’s personal transport bay. We take his transport back to his private Palace, a place I have only ever visited a few times. I look at my father. _***Tevas, do you know what my present is?***_

_***I do.***_ He does not elaborate, but his feelings are mixed. Pride and amusement are laced with wistfulness. I tamper down my frustration. Why is he acting so strangely tonight?

We arrive. As we traverse the endless corridors of the Emperor’s private palace, I realize we are going deep into the heart of it, to his private apartments, a place I have never been. The spice of exotic incense fills my nose, and I marvel at the elaborate decor that borders on the sumptuous and sensual. Finally, we come upon a large set of doors. 

The Emperor stops, turns to me. “It is the eve of your Ascent, the day you cease being a boy…” he waves his gnarled hand, and the doors open, “and become a man.” He smiles.

I peer through the doors. My jaw drops. I am pulled inside by pure instinct alone as I see twenty of the most beautiful women I have ever seen in my life. I am standing in The Emperor’s Harem. Humans mostly, but also two Twi’leks, green and lavender skinned, and a fuschia-hued Zeltron female. They sprawl across pillows on the floor and couches of velvet, all barely covered by the filmy scarves draped and tied around their perfect bodies. They are surrounded by serving droids bearing trays of exotic foods and carafes of Zeltron spiced wine, a powerful aphrodisiac.

I spin back around and gape at the Emperor and Tevas. The Emperor chuckles. “We will retrieve you in a day, the minute your Ascent Day is over.” He gestures to the girls. “Good night, Prince Vader.” He leaves, but Tevas lingers for a moment, staring at me. I understand his strange melancholy now. I am, truly, no longer his small one. 

I smile up at him as I step to him. _***Thank you, Tevas.***_ Tevas says nothing. He merely reaches and cups my chin, nodding only once. He then turns and goes. The doors close behind him.

A hand on my shoulder makes me turn around. Several of the girls are already surrounding me, touching my face, my hair, cooing and giggling in different languages. One is unfastening my cape from my shoulder. They smell of perfume and desire. But I become angry, I don’t entirely know why. I slap their hands and glare them away from me. No, they will not dictate how this evening will go. Only I will. 

I look around the luxurious chamber at the other girls until...I see one with dark hair, dark eyes, and pale skin. The one who looks the most like Leia Organa. I charge forward and take her arm, lifting her from her couch. She is older than the Alderaani princess, but only by a few years. She smiles slowly, hungrily. The Force reveals her elation that she will be the first one to make Prince Vader a man this night. But she is wrong. I already became a man the moment I took Leia’s hand. 

I take her into the private bedroom, brushing past the droid offering me a glass of spice wine. I hardly need it. Once the doors close, pull her to me and crush her lips in a kiss, taking her tongue with my own. Her whimper of surprise only fuels my need. I back her up to the bed and fall on top of her. Over the next hours, I become every lover I have read about, I take her in every position I possibly can, I taste and feast on every part of her.

And all the while I thrust into her, the name “Lee-Lee” hisses through my lips.


	2. Chapter II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, seems this is turning into a multi-chapter work after all.
> 
> Hit me up on tumblr-- vaderssidechick.tumblr.com

****

**Leia**

It’s not easy counting stars as they streak by, but I try. I’m lying on my berth in my cabin, my head turned toward the viewport. I’ve taken my necklace off and I’m fiddling with it to try to keep my hands busy and my thoughts calm. I took some of the pins and braids out of my hair so I can lie down more comfortably, but I didn’t get all of them. My hands shook too much. I just… need to be still, and watch the stars and breathe, and try not to think. Meditation, Papa calls it. He says it helps relax him, helps him focus on his tasks.

I’m not very good at it. 

There’s a rap on my door. “Lee-lee, are you awake?”

“Yes, Papa. Come in.”

The doors slide open and Papa enters. He’s discarded the heavy robe of his formal ensemble, leaving just his tunic and trousers. “Lee-lee,” he says softly, “you haven’t even changed.”

I touch the skirt of my gown. “It’s actually strangely comfortable. Can’t imagine how all those other girls got into their dresses. Some of them were feats of engineering in themselves.”

He sits on the foot of my bunk. “Sit up, let me help you with your hair.” In spite of the unease eating at me, I smile up at him. Papa always knows how to make me feel better. I sit up and scooch over, turning my back to him. His hands as gentle as always, Papa begins pulling more pins out of my hair and unfurling the braids. “Are you ok?”

“Papa,” I sigh, “how many girls were there tonight? Two, three thousand? And out of all those girls...I’m the one he notices?”

“Well,” Papa says, “you are quite extraordinary, Leia.”

“I even chose the plainest dress I had so he wouldn’t.”

“Unfortunately, beauty doesn’t work that way.” I hear the discomfort in his voice. He sighs. “You didn’t have to dance with him, sweetheart.”

“Yes I did. I’d already caused you enough trouble, Papa.”

“No trouble, Lee-lee,” he soothes. “I’m actually proud of you. Tarkin had it coming.” He unbraids another plait in my hair, and carefully lays it down my shoulder. The quiet between us indicates he’s measuring a question. “Leia...what did Prince Vader say to you? To upset you like that?”

“It’s not what he said, or did. It’s just...who he is.” I’m playing with the necklace in my hands so nervously it clinks.

“Give it to me,” Papa says, putting out his hand. “The Chalcedony Waves are a family heirloom, not a fidget toy.”

So I hand the necklace to Papa and clasp my hands tightly in my lap to keep them still. He continues with my hair until I finally say it. “Papa, what if he asks me to marry him?” 

“He won’t,” Papa says, quickly and even a bit sharply.

His tone surprises me. I turn around to see his face, and I don’t like what I see. Anger. And...fear? “What if he does?” I press. “Being a Vader, would he even ask? Or would he just order me?”

“It doesn’t matter.” His lids are heavy, making his eyes even darker. He grasps my hand. “You say no, Lee-lee. And your mother and I will stand behind you all the way.”

“Papa, the Emperor threatened sanctions over a silly invitation. What could happen if I refuse the Imperial Prince’s proposal--”

“Alderaan will go on, like it has for ten thousand years. Trust me, Leia,” he catches my chin in his fingers, “you are hardly the one to destroy it.”

I put my hand on his and think about my conversation with Prince Luke. “The truth is, Papa, I don’t think he is all bad.” 

He stiffens up. “Do you mean, you like him?”

“Force no! He’s arrogant and ruthless. He’s Darth Vader’s son!”

“Then why do you say that?” There it was again, that dark apprehension in his eyes that bordered on fear. It baffles me. Papa has gone toe to toe with Vader himself many times in the Senate, and never backed down from him. Why does his son seem to unnerve him like this? 

I try to ease him. “When I told him it was my birthday too… Papa, you should have seen his face. It was like he was a different person for a second, so...vulnerable.” Like he just learned he wasn’t alone in the universe. “He’s been so isolated, I think. Does he even have any friends? I think he’s actually very lonely.” 

Papa sighed. “That doesn’t surprise me, judging by the way he’s been raised. And the ones raising him.” 

I nod in agreement. Papa and Mama always made sure I was never kept away from the people, that I was always among them, and insisted that I have many friends from all walks of Alderaani life, not just nobility. “He even told me I could call him Luke.”

His brows drop into a scowl. “He did?” I nod. “What did you say?”

“Nothing nice,” I admit. I look up and see Papa’s face drawn with many different concerns, none of which I can easily surmise.

He wraps his arms around me and pulls me close into his chest, setting his chin on the top of my head. “You’re too strong, too smart, and too threatening for a boy like him. He’ll realize that sooner than later. You tell him no, he’ll pout, then he’ll get bored and chase some other princess. One who’ll actually want to be a part of that family, if you can believe that.” I chuckle as I return his hug, but I stop when Papa murmurs, “I won’t let them have you, Lee-lee.” 

His heart is pounding in my ear. “Papa, if it’s that simple, then why are you so afraid?”

He looks down at me. A smile spreads his face. “Because I’ve never been as brave as you.”

I play-punch him in the arm. “Stop that. You’re the bravest man I know.”

“And you,” he sets a kiss on my head, “are the light of my life.” He pulls away, turns my shoulders back around, and weaves my loose hair into a single braid. “Come on, get comfy and rest. We have another eleven hours until home.”

“Okay, Papa.” 

I rise off the bunk with him and give him a hug. He kisses my head again and gives me his usual good night blessing, “Dream big, Lee-lee.” Once he leaves, I slip out of my ball dress and into my favorite nightie, the one I take everywhere with me when I have to leave Alderaan. I summon the lights down and crawl under the covers of my bunk.

But I can’t sleep, I just watch the stars pass again. I think about Prince Vader, about that moment when he looked at me, like he was trying to see into my mind, but couldn’t. Well, of course he couldn’t, no one can do that…

Except maybe Vader. And if that were true, Luke might be able to do that too.

Did...I just refer to Prince Vader as Luke?

I turn away from the viewport. I don’t want to think about him like that, like he’s just another boy, because he’s not. He is the son of Darth Vader, he is the next Emperor, and he frightens me. Which is silly, because he really hasn’t done a thing to me except dance with me. But the way he looked at me, the way he spoke and the way he touched me… he didn’t act like a boy, but like a grown man.

Like a man who wants me.

I curl into a ball under the covers. I don’t like being afraid. But if even Papa is scared, how can I be brave?

* * *

Even if my ball dress was surprisingly comfortable, it’s nice to be back into my civvies. When the ramp of our shuttle opens, I am immediately greeted by the warmth of the sun and the scent of our palace bay’s surrounding lilac trees in full bloom. Mama is standing at the end of the ramp. She sweeps me into her arms and whispers in my ear, “You looked so beautiful last night, Lelali.”

I can’t help but slump in her arms. “Oh Force, Mama, you saw that?”

Mama pulls back and looks down at me. “Everyone did.” She goes to Papa and lands a firm kiss on his lips. I look past her to see Winter. She is waiting for me, practically bouncing on her toes.

Here it comes.

“What was he like, Leia?” she bursts as I come toward her. “Is he as handsome in person as he is on the holonet?”

“I guess so,” I say with a shrug.

“Are his eyes really that blue?”

His eyes. I think about how they stared into mine. “Bluer.”

“Is he as dreamy as he--”

“Winter! I don’t want to talk about him. Ok?”

Her exuberance collapses in front of me. “Ok.”

I bite my lip and throw my arms around her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to snap at you.”

“Leia,” she whispered again, “what happened?”

I squeeze her a little tighter. “I...don’t know, Winter.” I break away and try to shake it off. “Hey, how about some target practice? I could really shoot off a blaster right now.”

Winter’s smile returns. “You’re on.”

I turn around to tell Mama and Papa that we’re going down to the firing range when I see them talking quietly to each other. I see Papa’s smile fade into a harsh frown, and Mama glance back at me, her face tense with anxiety. I pat Winter’s arm. “Stay right there, I’ll be back.” I jog over to my parents. “Is something wrong?”

Mama glances to Papa, then back at me. She folds her elegant hands over her middle. I immediately recognize that gesture-- I picked it up from her whenever I needed to keep my hands from shaking. “Leia, I received a message this morning. From the Imperial Center.” She paused. “From Lord Vader.”

I swallow my heart back down into my chest, and try to seem nonchalant. “What does he want?”

“He…” Mama glances at Papa again, “wants to have a holoconference. With all of us.”

“When?”

“Now,” Papa says, barely containing his anger. “As soon as we returned.” 

I take a deep breath. Mama, as well as the rest of the galaxy, saw me dance with the Imperial Prince. And now Vader himself was contacting us a day later? We all look at each other, silently, but we all agree that we know what this means. 

I clutch Papa’s arm. “You meant what you said last night, Papa? About standing behind me all the way?”

A proud smirk cracks Papa’s scowl. “One hundred percent, Lee-lee.”

I look at Mama, who returns my look with a soft smile, a nod, and utter devotion. I take their hands in mine and squeeze. “Right. Then let’s go talk to a Sith Lord and refuse his son’s marriage proposal.” As I turn on my heel and march toward the palace entrance, I point at Winter. “I’ll meet you at the firing range. Warm a blaster up for me.”

“You got it, Boss,” Winter says with a mock salute.

We go to my mother’s office in our palace. But before we engage the transmission, we all take our hands in each others’. None of us say anything until I look up at Mama. “I’ll say yes if you want me to, Mama. For Alderaan.”

She transforms in front of me, from Mama into the Queen of Alderaan. The softness in her face hardens into a firm determination. “Marrying Prince Vader is not what is best for Alderaan, my daughter. You already know that.”

I try to keep my relief as subtle as possible. I look at my father. “Papa…?”

“All the way, Lee-Lee,” he says, squeezing my hand. 

My heart is pounding in my chest, my stomach ties up in knots. But the love in their eyes and the fortitude on their faces pull my strength up from the depths of any fear I feel. We separate and take our places beside each other. I nod to Mama, who then gestures to a servant to hail Lord Vader. 

Vader appears life-sized on the holopad in the middle of my mother’s office. While even if his image is all painted in light, he is still as monstrous as he is in person. His respirator fills the room like a hollow wind, and his cold baritone echoes throughout. “Queen Breha. Senator Organa.” His mask turns my way. “Princess Leia.”

I can hear the subtlest disdain in his modulated voice. It then occurs to me how I look at this moment-- face clean of any makeup I wore the night before, dressed in a roomy tunic, trousers and boots, my hair messy in a disheveled braid. And I smile inside. Good. I’m glad he sees me like this, as just some girl who wouldn’t even turn a head in a crowded marketplace, much less at an Imperial function. I want him to see me as unworthy of his golden Emperor-to-be. 

But then, I see him draw his shoulders back and stiffen, almost like he’s...startled? It’s barely a movement, but it’s there. Isn’t it? I’m imagining it, I must be. Trying to read Vader is like trying to read a Star Destroyer. 

“Lord Vader,” Mama says, stepping forward and spreading her hands in that courtly way I could never quite master, “this is quite an honor. How may we serve you today?” 

He still looks at me for a moment before he turns back to my parents. “It seems the Princess has made an impression on Prince Vader.”

“I’m not surprised, Lord Vader. She is very good at that,” Mama says, smiling warmly at the Sith Lord. Her voice is steady and her tone is lighthearted. Force, I wish I could do that like she can.

“Indeed,” he responds, a little flatly. I watch him set his huge hands on his belt. “I have discussed his interest with the Emperor, and he agrees that a marriage between Prince Vader and Princess Organa would benefit your house and the Empire as a whole. Therefore, I wish to begin negotiations for their betrothal.”

How romantic. I hope I haven’t just rolled my eyes.

He continues. “We will begin by discussing what sort of dowry the Emperor and I believe would be satisfactory to both parties--”

“Lord Vader,” Mama interjects quietly, raising a hand and stepping forward, her smile never wavering, “do you mean to discuss this with the Viceroy and I? Because if that is the case,” she shrugs lightly, “I’m afraid that isn’t possible.”

The Dark Lord tilts his gruesome mask down at Mama. “Why not?” His altered voice almost sounds like a growl.

“Well, you see, Lord Vader,” Mama says, “today is Leia’s fourteenth birthday. Which, by Alderaani law and custom, she is a legal adult. Thus, the Viceroy and I have no say in any of her future plans. The choice…” gesturing to me, “is up to Leia.”

I gawk at Mama, my jaw dropping to my chest. She responds with the tiniest of winks. Yes, as of today, I am a legal adult on Alderaan, despite my position as a Royal Princess. So the decision is completely mine to make. I try to hide my smile. 

I don’t think I succeeded, because Vader is clearly agitated. “Alderaani law is still subject to Imperial law--”

“Excuse me for interrupting,” Papa says, clearly trying to mask his own relief, “but is there a law on the books regarding a matter like this, Lord Vader? After all, the Empire has only existed for fourteen years, and Prince Vader is the first heir named for succession. And,” he added, his tone growing quiet and hard, “I cannot remember such a bill ever passing through the Imperial Senate that would force any citizen into a marriage with the Imperial heir. Also, there has never been an arranged marriage in the Alderaani Royal Family. All members have chosen their own spouses. Isn’t that right, my beloved Breha?”

Mama smiles warmly at Papa. “That is correct, my dearest Bail.”

I press my lips together to keep from laughing. Oh, they are really rubbing Vader’s mask in it!

“So, as it seems to stand,” Papa says, “Leia has every legal right to make her own decision in this matter.”

All I want to do at this moment is run to them and jump in their arms! I don’t, of course. Protocol being a factor, true, but more because I can feel the Dark Lord’s glare squarely on me now. Even if he is just a hologram, the room just dropped a few degrees colder. 

“I see,” Vader rumbles. They got him, he doesn’t have a leg to stand on, and he knows it. That doesn’t stop him, though. “Since the Princess is a legal adult on your world, I assume she will make an adult decision,” his hands tense around his belt as he stares down at me, “and choose _wisely_.”

Oh, the arrogance of the man! The absolute gall of this beast! “I am standing right here, Lord Vader, please do not speak of me in the third person. If you have something to ask, then ask me. Directly.” I see Mama and Papa’s smiles fade out of the corner of my eye. Oh Force, what have I done? I just sassed Darth Vader! But Goddess, I can’t help it, he’s just so...infuriating! Mean! Ugh, he doesn’t even like me! Why would he even want me around his precious golden child??

Vader tilts his mask to the side at me, that blank stare just freezing my nerves. He actually takes a step forward at me. But I don’t flinch, I just narrow my eyes at him. That’s right. This is between you and me, Vader. 

Finally, he speaks. “Very well,” he says, his tone deep and not-so-subtly mocking, “Princess Organa. Do you accept my son’s proposal?”

“No. I do not.”

A beat. “Explain.”

I glance at my parents, who are doing their best to mask any concern, as my thoughts race. Make it good, Leia. Make it… grown up. “Well, you see, Lord Vader, as of today, I am an Alderaani adult. So tomorrow, I will be filing all the forms required to run for the Alderaani Planetary Senate. The election is in six months, and I have no doubt that I will win. By the end of my first term, I will be of age for full Imperial citizenship. I will then run for my father’s seat in the Imperial Senate, as he has expressed his desire to retire after his term is finished. Isn’t that right, Father?”

“That is correct, Leia,” Papa answers, a twinkle in his eye.

I turn back to the Dark Lord. “I have all the confidence in the galaxy that I will win that election as well, and I plan to make the Senate my lifelong career. So, you see,” I add, spreading my hands, “I haven’t even considered marriage for the near future. I’m afraid the next decade of my life is already booked solid.” Then I sigh. “Also, having an Imperial Senator as the next Empress would seem to be a sizable conflict of interest, would it not? I can’t fathom how I could juggle the interests of the Imperial Family and the needs of the people without being accused of playing loyalties from both sides. And, of course, with the workload set on any Senator, I simply could not give Prince Vader all the attention he would deman…” I reset, “deserve from a wife.” I force my smile wider. “Surely you can understand that, Lord Vader?” 

Vader stands there, silent except for his breathing, not moving a muscle for I don’t even know how long. I wish I could see his face, to know what was going through that blasted helmet of his. You could cut the tension in the room with a vibroblade. I keep my eyes on Vader, because I’m a little scared to look at my parents. Have I just made a huge mistake? Did I just endanger all of Alderaan? I swear, at this moment, I can actually feel them next to me, I can feel their anxiety…

Until, that horrible voice, once again, fills the room like a noxious fume. “Yes, Princess Organa, I understand.” 

I think my eyes are about to pop out of my head. “You...do?”

“Of course. Your dedication to duty is commendable. I believe that is one quality my son admires about you.”

Is this actually happening? “Er...thank you, Lord Vader.”

“He will, of course, be _sorely_ disappointed.”

Ah, there’s the threatening tone, he practically crushes the word “sorely” under his boot. Spin it, Lee-lee. “He deserves better, Lord Vader. A wife solely dedicated to him and a mother wholly committed to raising the next heirs to the Throne. I am simply not that girl. It wouldn’t be fair to him.” Good job, Leia.

Vader nods to me only once, then he turns to my parents. “I will inform the Emperor and my son of the Princess’s answer.” And, without any further discussion or even a proper farewell, Vader’s hologram blinks out of the air.

We all just stand there, gaping at the space where the Dark Lord just stood, until we all look at each other. “Is...is that it?” I ask. 

“It seems so,” Mama says with a relieved sigh.

“That...that can’t be it.” I step into the empty space, my brow crinkling so hard it almost hurts. “That can’t be all. He just… did Darth Vader just take ‘no’ for an answer??”

“Yes,” Papa says, but not happily. “At least, for now.”

I come to Papa. “Then this isn’t over. You know that too, right?”

He takes a deep breath and puts his hands on my shoulders. “It is for today, Lee-lee.” And squeezes as his face breaks into a huge grin. “You were magnificent!”

All the breath falls out of me, like I’ve been holding it for years. “I was?”

“Brilliant!” Mama exclaims, dropping all of her formality and sweeping me into a fierce hug. “I am so proud of you, Lelani! I’ve never seen anyone stand up to Vader like that!”

“Sure you have, Mama-- you and Papa!” I hold her as tightly as I can.

“Leia,” she laughs, “not so tight! My goodness, how is someone as little as you so strong?”

“Because,” Papa bellows, pulling me away from Mama, “she is my little thermal detonator!” Before I can stop him, he dips down and hoists me over his shoulder.

“PAPA!” I squeal as he twirls me around. “Papa, put me down, you nerfherder!” Before I know it, he’s actually carrying me out of the office and through the white corridors of our palace, Mama laughing and following behind. Servants and droids see us, and join in our laughter. I kick my legs and playfully pound on his back. “Papa, put me down! Where are you taking me?”

“You’ll see.” From the path we’re travelling, it seems he’s taking me to the banquet hall. Mama rushes in front of us and opens the doors. Papa stops and gently puts me down. “Turn around.” Before I can even fully do so, the entire hall erupts with a deafening “SURPRISE!”

I shriek, then throw my hands to my face when I see the entire palace-- servants, administrators, security, and all my schoolmates and friends-- filling the banquet hall and throwing streamers through the air. Across the dais hangs a huge banner that reads, “Happy Birthday to Our Next Senator!” And in the middle of the long banquet table is a gigantic cake, decorated with candies shaped like my favorite flowers and birds.

I spin around and gawk at Mama, who laughs. “Did you really think we wouldn’t celebrate your birthday, Lelali, no matter what?”

“Oh, Mama! Papa!” I throw my arms around them both. “Thank you! Thank you so much!” 

Just then, Winter runs up and joins our hug. I turn and embrace her completely. “You knew?”

“Well of course I did, duh!”

“But we were going to the firing range!”

“Well,” she says, pulling away, “I was supposed to distract you by talking about Prince Vader while everyone got ready. But you came up with your own distraction until…Lord Vader supplied another one.” Winter’s smile faded. “Are… you ok?”

I’d almost forgotten about him until now. But I don’t let it get me down. “I’m better than ok, you sneak!” I hug her again. “And now let’s get some cake! I’m starving!”

 

****

**Luke**

I pick the combat droid up with the Force and hurl it across the room until it smashes into the wall of my salle. “She REFUSED??”

Tevas stands motionless near the door, hands clasped behind him, unaffected whatsoever by my temper. “Yes.”

“She said no?”

“That is what ‘refused’ means, nuyak Su’us.”

I pace the salle, the sweat of my workout drips off my bare chest and shoulders, my lightsaber still in my grip. “She...turned me down. ME!” I hit my chest. “She turned ME down!”

“Are we exploring all the ways one can say ‘refused’ in Basic, Luke? Shall we then proceed to other languages once we’ve exhausted those?”

“I’m glad this amuses you so much, Tevas!” I snap. “Aren’t you the least bit angry? At ALL?”

He tilts his helm. “Should I be?”

“Well, yes! This…” anger makes me struggle for words, “this little, insolent, MINOR Princess just turned down your son’s marriage proposal! Aren’t you insulted?” Tevas says nothing, but our bond indicates that he is not. “Well, what does the Emperor have to say about it?”

“I have not spoken with him yet.”

“Well, don’t you think--”

“ENOUGH,” Tevas barks, his patience obviously thinning. “You will calm yourself. Now.” 

I stop, grind my teeth. I flick my saber off, hook it back onto my belt, and wipe the sweat off my hand on my trouser leg. After a few deep breaths, I glance back at Tevas. “Did she give you a reason?”

“Yes. She is running for the Alderaani Senate, and then the Imperial Senate after she turns eighteen. She said that she would not be able to satisfactorily perform as your wife.”

“And you believe that?” I scoff.

“I do not. She refused because she hates us.”

Even if the simplest answer is usually the right one, it does nothing to assuage my anger. I storm over to a bench to pick up a towel and wipe myself down. “I’m...we’re...offering her everything! The galaxy, all of it! She’s going to waste her time--and MY time-- in the Senate when she could be Empress…” I trail off when an idea hits me. “That’s it, Tevas. The Emperor could dissolve the Senate! If there’s no Senate, she can’t run.” Even as it comes out of my mouth, I hear how ridiculous it sounds.

For the first time, he moves from his position and steps toward me. “While there are many reasons to dissolve the Senate, and it will be dissolved one day, that is not a sound reason for doing so, Su’us.”

I run my hand through my hair. “So, then I suppose it’s over.” I brace myself for what’s coming next-- a speech about dealing with disappointment and there are other princesses and on and on. 

But Tevas says nothing, he merely stares at me. Eventually, he comes toward me, hands on his belt. As he towers over me (will I ever grow to be that tall?), I am practically encased in the indignation that surges through our Force-bond. “Is this how I raised the next Emperor?” he murmurs. No, not murmurs. Growls. “A spoiled boy who tucks his tail between his legs and admits defeat so easily?” He leans down. “I hate to think of the result of any future battle you may command if that is the case.”

His words cut me to the bone. I look down at the floor. “No Tevas, that is not the son you raised,” I can barely croak out. 

I feel the shift in Father’s temperment, from disapproval to...contrition. He straightens up again, and puts a hand on my shoulder. “You are young, Luke. You do not fully understand the intricacies of negotiation. An offer is made, it is rejected, then a new offer is produced.”

My unease evaporates. “We’ll try again?”

His gaze is long, and his grip on my shoulder tightens just a whisper. “We are not finished with the Alderaani Royal Family, Su’us, I assure you of that. If becoming Empress is not incentive enough for the Princess to accept our proposal, perhaps a different means of… persuasion is necessary.”

I furrow my brow. I know that tone all too well, that chilling determination. “Like what?”

“We will discuss it this evening with the Emperor at dinner,” he says shortly, signaling that my line of questioning is over. He lifts his mask and looks off, as if in thought. “I will add a class in negotiation to your curriculum. It will be a skill vital to your success as Emperor.”

“Yes, Tevas,” I sigh. Dinner with the Emperor. It doesn’t help my mood whatsoever. A pang goes through my chest. The only reason we are dining with him is because Tevas is leaving in the morning. Without me. “But you won’t be my teacher, will you? It’ll just be some tutoring droid.” 

A sound comes through Father’s vocoder. Many would not be able to interpret the sound, but I know it to be a sigh. “I regret leaving you here, Su’us. But it is only for three months. I will contact you as often as possible.”

“From wherever it is you’re going that you won’t tell me,” I mutter. 

“You are not ready to know that yet,” Tevas answers flatly.

“So when will I be ready to know about this ‘secret project’?” I snap back. 

Tevas steps into my space and looms over me once again, setting his fists on his hips and flaring his cape out so that he fills my entire vision. “What has gotten into you, that you speak to me with such insolence, Luke?”

I want to look down at the floor again, but since Tevas has just insinuated that he may have raised a coward, I look directly into his lenses and state, “I don’t want to be left alone here, Father.”

Again, a vocoder-garbled sigh. “You won’t be alone,” he replies, his voice much softer. “You will spend much time with the Emperor. He can teach you many things, Luke.” 

“So, I will have the Emperor as company. And of course, all the droids in this fortress.”

He pauses again. A spark through the Force indicates that he may finally understand what I’m saying. Or so I thought. “Did you enjoy the Emperor’s gift the other evening?” he asks, completely out of the blue.

Force, he brings _that_ up? I turn away to hide the heat spreading across my face. “Father, please--”

“Did she not satisfy your needs?”

“Yes, she was fine! Tevas, I don’t want to talk about--”

“The Emperor says you may keep her, if you so wish.” I spin back around and gape at him. He continues. “She may help assuage any loneliness you feel. Within certain limits, of course.”

I knit my brow. “Those limits being?”

“To the physical only.”

The offer is tempting, to say the least. But then I remember how I felt afterwards. While the experience was...nice, I’ve actually found myself trying not to think about it. It makes me feel oddly sad every time I do. Empty. Gods and hells, I didn’t even ask her name, because I didn’t want to know it. I just wanted her to be Leia, if only for a little while. “No, Tevas. I don’t want her.” 

“Would you prefer a boy?” came his next matter-of-fact and utterly humiliating question.

“No! I don’t want to talk about this anymore, Tevas!”

“If that is your wish.”

The sweat from my training is sticking to my skin, and I am suddenly very aware that I don’t have a shirt on. While I have never been embarrassed to be shirtless in front of Tevas before, the direction this discussion has taken leaves me feeling exposed. The heat that started on my face is now engulfing my whole body. “Tevas, I need a shower.” _And some time alone_ , I add in my head. 

I’m sure he probably heard it. “Very well, Luke. Clean up, and choose something appropriate to wear. I will come to fetch you at 1900 hours.”

I turn away from him as I merely nod.

* * *

We do, indeed, discuss it at dinner. Well, Tevas and the Emperor discuss it. I simply sit and pick at the gourmet meal in front of me as I listen. As usual, they talk about me and my future as though I’m not even there. It never really bothered me in the past. For some reason, it does now.

“The fare is not to your liking, Prince Vader?”

I look up from my plate at the Emperor, who sits at the head of the table and smiles at me. His grin is the only thing I can see under the shadow of his hood. “It is sublime, my Emperor. As always.”

He leans back in his chair, but his eyes are still locked on me. “You seem distracted, my boy. I do hope you have been paying some attention.”

“You intend to plant an agent in the Organa household,” I say, assuring him that I have been. I try to meet his eyes under his hood. “I approve, my Emperor.”

The Emperor cackles softly. “I am honored that you do so, young heir.”

I shoot a glance at Tevas, who sits still as a mountain with no place setting in front of him. Tevas never eats in front of anyone, not even me. But he thrums through the Force, and I feel his admonishment. And a whisper of pride.

I exhale through an embarrassed smile. “Forgive my boldness, your Majesty.”

“Nothing to forgive, my boy.” Again, that phlegmy chortle. I am not looking forward to three months of that. “I always admire your candor. It will take considerable boldness to hold the galaxy within your fist, Luke.” His stare hardens. “You have grown much since last I saw you. Especially in the Force.”

I gaze across the table at Tevas. “Father is a great teacher, my Emperor. He is wise in the Force.” 

“Indeed,” the Emperor croaked, raising a skeletal finger to his lips and tossing a glare at Tevas. Before I can even comprehend why, he adds, “He would be wise to feed you more. You are too thin, my boy.”

“He has always been a light eater, my Master,” is Father’s curt reply. 

“Well, we’ll have to remedy that while he enjoys his stay with me.”

“His training keeps him lean. Gluttony and decadence are hardly beneficial to the training of a Sith warrior.”

“Neither is starvation,” the Emperor hisses.

“I am NOT starving him,” Tevas rumbles back.

I do my best not to roll my eyes. They’re at it again. Squabbling over me like quarreling parents. I wonder for a second if the Organas do that over Leia as well. Well, with a spy planted in their midst, I may soon find out. Or would I? Will they even tell me anything they find out?

“I may take after my mother in that regard, my Emperor,” I blurt. “I fear that, perhaps, I may be grow up to be small, like her.” I glance up from my plate to see the Emperor’s stare targeted directly at me, and I feel a surge of adrenaline and barely-controlled shock from Tevas. This is the first time I have ever, _ever_ mentioned my mother to the both of them together. But it did the trick. It silenced them both.

For approximately a minute. “What do you know of your mother, boy?” the Emperor asks in that slow, gurgling way of his.

I lick my lips. The Emperor has asked me a direct question, and I have no choice but to answer it. “That she was Padme Amidala, a former queen of Naboo. And that Obi Wan desired her for himself, so he killed her,” I repeat the story he himself has told me back to him. I feel the first tinges of rage come from Tevas before he slams his shields shut to me. 

He is furious with me. I dared mention Mother. Again. And in the presence of the Emperor, no less.

But the Emperor isn’t angry. If anything, he seems amused. “Is that all you know of her, young prince? Then how did you know she was petite?”

I put down my fork and straighten in my chair. I don’t dare lie. They’d know. “I have… seen vids of her.”

“Where?” Tevas asks, his voice as cold as the void itself.

“Historical archives.” I swallow. Hard.

“There are no records of her aboard the _Devastator_ ,” Father says.

“I know.” I look directly into his lenses. “I saw them on the holonet.”

The table is silent for a few moments, but the air around practically crackles with the Force coming off the both of them. “There are records of Padme Amidala on the holonet?” Tevas finally says. His hushed tone does nothing to dampen the fury in it. 

“Yes. If you know where to slice,” I reply, looking down at my plate again. 

The Emperor glares at my father, who in turn glares at me. My obedience wanes as I clench my fists in my lap. “She was my mother! I just… wanted to see what she looked like! I don’t see why looking at pictures of her is so wrong--”

Tevas points his finger at me. “I have distinctly told you never to delve into that matter, and you willfully disobeyed me, young one! Your behavior recently has been nothing short of rebellious--”

“Why don’t you ever talk about her, Tevas?” I yell back at him. I’m so tired of being treated like a child! “Why won’t you tell me about her? Why has she been purged from the holonet, from the history books? It’s not like she was a traitor or anything--”

“ANAS KASH GANA, J’US KVAILAS SUNUS!” Tevas roars, jumping to his feet so fast he knocks his chair to the ground. I instinctively recoil-- not just from his blistering volume, but from the Sith language itself, steeped as it is in the Dark Side of the Force. The hairs on my neck stand up, and my skin grows frigid.

But my anger still burns.

Once again, the Emperor’s chuckle breaks the tense silence. “Well. Perhaps a little time away from one another is exactly what is in order, is it not?”

Breath rushes out of my body. Once again, Tevas and I have argued in front of the Emperor. It seems to happen almost every time we are in his presence. Every time we are on the Throneworld, in fact. Tevas and I rarely ever argue, but for some reason, we always do here. My brow furrows at this realization. Is he somehow encouraging our arguments? Like he enjoys our anger at each other? _Feeds_ off it…? 

The Emperor turns back to me, completely ignoring my fuming father and smiling as though nothing had happened. “My young heir and child of my heart,” he croaked, “do you wish for any dessert?”

I tear my eyes away from Tevas, clear my throat, and remove the napkin from my lap. “No thank you, my Emperor, I am quite sated.”

“None?” he asked, his tone teasing. He leaned toward me. “Not even Ijelda?”

“What? What’s Ijelda?”

His screeching cackle fills the room, echoes off the ceiling. “Not even two days after, and he’s forgotten all about my gift!” He turns to Tevas, who has still not taken his seat, or even attempted to pick it off the floor. “Methinks he’ll have a harem that will shame my own, Lord Vader, if he plucks such a flower and then tosses her aside! Seems you are raising quite the lady-killer.”

My skin goes from cold to that irritating heat of humiliation. So. She does have a name. I open my mouth to respond, but I simply can’t. I can only look down into my half-eaten meal.

Until Tevas speaks, calmly and quietly. “Luke, are you finished with your dinner?”

“Yes, Father.”

“Then you may go back to our palace, if you wish. I will meet you there.” His helm turns slightly toward the Emperor, and his voice takes on that cold austerity that tells me he is barely containing his wrath. “His Majesty and I have some things to discuss before my departure tomorrow.”

I glance at the Emperor, who merely leans back into his humongous chair and gives a light shrug and wave of his gnarled hand. I do my best not to bolt out of my seat. I stand and bow to the Emperor. “Excellent meal, my Emperor. I thank you for your hospitality.”

“Anything for you, my boy,” he says, his lips peeling back from his decaying teeth once again. I stride to the huge doors that lead out to the corridors when his next words stop me in my tracks. “Perhaps you and I will chat about your mother while you are here. Would you like that?”

I spin around, my mouth dropped open, and I’m about to give him an ecstatic “YES!” when I feel Father’s rage. It hits me like a hurricane on Kamino and crashes through my very flesh. But it is not directed at me, only at the Emperor. My gut clenches when I realize they are about to go at each other. Over me. 

Again.

So instead, I simply nod. And get the kriff out of there. 

The only sound the Royal Guards can hear in the massive corridor are the clicks of my boot heels against the black marble floors. But all I can hear is the cacophony of Dark Side fury that careens through the Force from the heavy closed doors of the dining hall behind me.

* * *

It doesn’t take much effort at all to yank the stormtrooper out of driver’s seat of the speeder, not with the Dark Side feeding my anger. I don’t bother to open the door, I just jump over it into the seat.

“Your Highness!” the trooper bellows as he gets to his feet, “you can’t drive yourself!”

“Watch me,” I snarl back at him.

“But-- you don’t have a license! You’re not of age!” 

I hit the ignition, and the thrusters’ roars echo all around the sweeping speeder bay of the Imperial Palace. The trooper can’t hear me laughing over the din. I am the Heir to the Empire, did I need a license? And really, that was the best he could come up with?

Come on, trooper, show me your fear…

“Please, your Highness,” he pleads. Begging always sounds funny through a troop’s bucket. “If anything happened to you, your father will kill me. Badly. Very badly.”

There it is. The Dark Side sings with it. “I’ll wear a helmet,” I lie.

“At least take me with you!”

I set my jaw and consider it. “Get in.”

The trooper scrambles around the speeder’s nose to the passenger side and hops over the door. “What’s your name?” I ask.

“TK-4356, your Highness.”

“Your call-sign,” I clarify, rolling my eyes.

He hesitates for a second. “Crash.”

My grin grows. How fitting. “Strap in, Crash.” I rev the thrusters. “ALL the way in.”

He proceeds to do so, clasping the straps over his lap, shoulders, and torso, his armor clanking. “You should do so as well, your Highness.”

“Soldier, you will do two things while you’re here.”

“Yes, your Highness?”

“One, you will never tell me what to do. And two,” I rev the thrusters and release the throttle, “you’ll call me Luke.” 

“Yes, your-- Lu--UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU---”

My howls of laughter match his howls of terror as I tear the speeder out of the bay and out into the frenzied traffic of the Throneworld’s air lanes. In the opposite direction of Father’s fortress. 

“Your High-- Luke! We’re going the wrong direction, Sir!” he bellows through his helmet.

“Not for the Works, we’re not,” I yell back over the engines.

“Oh shavit” he shrieks, “not the Works, Luke!” 

Force, but his fear is delicious! I yank the controls and send us into a spiraling barrel roll. I hit the repulsors just in time for the speeder to fly upside down. Crash yowls and grips his straps in sheer terror. I hang on to the yoke with one hand and let my body drop and my feet dangle as we race through the air. 

It’s the closest I can get to actually flying. 

I can see the dilapidated constructs of The Works in front of us, the old Industrial District of Coruscant. Exhilaration fills me to the bone as I pull myself back up into the driver’s seat and hit the repulsors to right us. All those skinny gaps between the all those rusted-out bulwarks and struts, just begging me to needle through them…

“Luke?”

I almost forgot the terrified trooper strapped in beside me. “What?” I snap.

“I just vomited in my bucket, Sir.”

* * *

I pull into the speeder bay of our fortress an hour later. I am still drunk off the adrenaline and Crash’s utter fright through the Force. He is tearing the safety belts off his armor before we even come to a full stop.

Before he can even say a word or get out of the speeder, I say, “You will say nothing about this to anyone.”

Crash stops his frantic pulling and stills. “I will say nothing about this to anyone.”

“You vomited because you got a hold of some bad street food.”

“I vomited because I got a hold of some bad street food.”

“You should go to the infirmary and get checked out.”

Crash wavers in his seat for a moment, then turns to me and says calmly. “Your Highness, I think I should go to the infirmary and get checked out for parasites. With your permission?”

I smirk. “Granted.”

We both climb out of the speeder, and I watch him come around the speeder to the driver’s side, his pace sluggish and disoriented. He climbs in and says, “Good evening, your Highness. Glory to the Empire.” My smile fades as I watch him drive away. 

I in turn go to the lift that will take me to my private apartments. As the car moves up, I reach out for Tevas in the Force. But he is not here in the fortress, he must still be at the Palace. Force, are they still at it? They argue over me like a battle plan. In fact, I am the only thing Tevas argues with the Emperor about. In everything else, he is completely obedient to the Emperor and follows his every order without question. But when it comes to me, he is as fierce as a rabid nexu. And I fear for him at times. While Tevas is immensely powerful, he is not as strong as the Emperor. Both of us combined are not as strong as the Emperor. 

Someday, that will change. I yearn for that day.

I walk the long, empty black corridors, and my adrenaline rush is dwindling rapidly. When I come to my rooms and open the doors, I am greeted by a sprawling, luxurious chamber. My quarters on the _Devastator_ are much smaller than this, and I prefer them to this extravagance. This was all, of course, another gift from the Emperor. He is always giving me things. My rooms are filled with the finest furniture in the Empire, priceless art, lush rugs, the most advanced tech for communications and entertainment. 

And utter silence.

I peel off the high-collared black coat as I go into the expansive fresher and wash up for bed. There I change into sleep pants and go into my bed chamber. But I’m not tired. I glance at the chrono on the wall. It’s almost midnight, and Tevas is still not back. I should reach out to him, check on him, make sure everything is alright with the Emperor. But I hesitate. He is probably still angry with me for bringing up Mother, for causing this whole thermal explosion at dinner.

Instead, I go back out, crossing the great room to the holocom. I stare at it for a moment before I make a decision. 

I sit at the desk and begin slicing. If I can find pictures of Mother, I can certainly find the communication codes for the Organa palace on Alderaan.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Anas kash gana, j'us kvailas sunus" is Sith for "That is enough, you impudent boy". 
> 
> I am totally free-forming this fic. I don't have a solid outline, and even I don't exactly know what will happen next. Stay tuned!
> 
> Ok, I'll make y'all a deal-- if you don't want to leave comments here in public, you can hit me up on tumblr-- http://vaderssidechick.tumblr.com/ and leave them privately in my inbox.


	3. Chapter III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been forever since I updated. Thanks so much for sticking around.

**Leia**

 

“Leia.” 

No. That is not Winter saying my name. I’m dreaming it.

"Leia, wake up.”

Ok, that is Winter saying my name. And shaking my shoulder.

“Leia, wake up! Now, get up now!”

I think I’m swatting at her. I roll on my back and scowl at her through bleary eyes. “What is it, Win? What’s the matter?”

Winter is positively breathless. “You have a holocall.”

“A...what?” I push myself up and try to ignite my brain. “What time is it?”

“It’s four.”

“In the morning??” I flop back into bed. “Tell whoever it is to call at a decent hour.”

Winter gives me a good hard shove. “Leia, I think you want to take this! It’s from the Imperial Center. From CORUSCANT.”

I spring up. “Coruscant?!” All breath falls out of me. “Goddess, is it _Vader?_ _Again_? Winter, go wake my parents--”

“It’s not Vader.”

“Well then, who is it?”

Winter hesitates, then runs to fetch my robe. “Just...come on.”

I eye her, utterly confused. Then I sigh and get out of bed. “Alright, I’m coming.” I put on my robe and follow her out through the dark into living area of the rooms we share. Last year, my parents allowed me to have my own holopad and frequency, so that I could have private conversations with my friends and lessons from my teachers.

The blond boy painted in light in front of me is neither one of those.

The hologram blinds me, and I shield my eyes. It takes me a moment to adjust to the brightness. But when I do, my mouth drops open. “Are you out of your mind??” I blurt through my haze of sleep-deprivation.

A shirtless Prince Vader chuckles and leans back in his seat. “And hello to you too, your Highness.”  

“I’ll...just…” Winter says softly, backing toward the door, “leave you two alone.”

I whip around. “Winter, don’t you dare! Don't you dare leave--”

“Leia,” she breathes, “you know it’s best that I don’t hear this conversation.”

I want to make her stay, but the words die on my lips. She’s right-- if my parents found out I talked to the Imperial Prince without their knowledge, they would grill Winter before me. And Winter was notorious for cracking under Mama’s ‘disappointed’ parental glare.

“Your servant is correct, Highness,” the Prince says with that same arrogance I saw at the ball. “Best she go back to her quarters.”

“She is NOT my servant!” I tell him. “She is my sister!”

He blinks. “Sister? There is no record of two Royal Princesses of Alderaan.”

“Foster sister,” Winter quietly informs him, squaring her shoulders. “I am not officially adopted into the Royal Family.”

“Oh, war orphan, hmm?” he sighs with a flippant wave of his hand. “Then yes, leave. This conversation is for true royalty only.”

“Don’t move a muscle, Winter! Because there’ll BE no conversation!” I stomp over to the holopad controls and reach to shut it off--

“No!” the Prince yelps. I look up at him and see all his conceit vanish. “Don’t do that.” His voice grows softly desperate. “Don’t disconnect. Please?”

 _Please?_ Did I just hear the Imperial Crown Prince, the son of Darth Vader, say _please_? He transforms from the arrogant brat of Darth Vader to a despondent teenage boy right in front of us. “I… can we start again?” He lifts his sky-blue eyes to Winter. “Your name is Winter? Like the season, when it gets cold?”

Winter and I both glance at each other before she answers. “Yes, like the season.”

He nods, and changes his tune from haughty to polite. “Winter, I would like to have a private conversation with the Princess.” He then looks at me with hopeful eyes. “If she is willing. “And…” he takes a deep breath through his nose, and I can almost feel him struggle to say the words “my apologies for insulting you.”

Winter coughs a little, clearly nervous. “It is no matter, your Imperial Highness. Apology accepted.”  She looks to me, mouth dropped, silently pleading for me to tell her what to do.

I’m just as dumbfounded as she is, which is probably why I agree to it. My neck feels tight when I nod to her. “It’s alright, Winter. I’ll...speak with him.” 

Winter nods, then turns to the Prince and bows her head. “A, um… pleasure to meet you, your Imperial Highness.” Before he can respond, she hurries out the door.

I stand there for a second, trying to catch my breath and calm my heart rate, before I turn back to him. “Do you have any idea what time it is?”

He glances at the chrono over his shoulder. “It’s midnight.”

“On Coruscant! It’s four in the morning here!”

He flashes a mischievous grin. “I know. I can see Alderaan’s chrono display in the corner of the transmission.” And shrugs. “I thought you’d be up by now.”

“I don’t wake up until seven-thirty.”

He raises his brows. “Lucky you. Wish I had that luxury.”

Is he serious? Does Vader make him wake at military time? How awful. But this drop of pity disappears when I remember that I almost hate him. “Seems to me you are hardly lacking in luxury, your Highness.”

He inhales sharply as if to retort, but then sighs and looks away. “I didn’t call you to fight with you, Leia.”.

“Then why did you call me?” I step away from the controls to face his hologram head on. “And how did you get my private code?”

The Prince’s eyes twinkle. My stars, they actually twinkle. “One can find anything if they know where to slice. By the way, your encryption codes are horribly outdated. You need to have your palace com-tech update those very soon.”

I huff out a breath. Heir to the Empire, ace pilot, boy-warrior, and now a slicer-genius to boot. Of course he is. “Look your Highness, if this is about your... _offer_ , I already gave Va--” I stop and correct myself, “your father my answer during that oh-so-lovely holo conference. So why don’t we just leave it--”

“I don’t want to talk about that,” he interjects quietly.

“Then what _do_ you want to talk about?” I ask, folding my arms.

“Well, first, I’d like to ask you again to call me Luke.”

I drop my arms, a little taken aback. There isn’t any irritation in his tone, nor any of the arrogance I saw just a few moments ago. In fact, there’s a little sadness around his lips. “I… ok. Luke.” It’s not appropriate to address Prince Vader like this, like he’s just some boy. And yet...it doesn’t feel completely wrong. “What is it you want?”

“I just…” he shrugs a little, and glances down at his hands before he looks back up at me. “Do you always wear white?”

He’s referring to my robe and nightgown. I arch an eyebrow. “Are you wearing anything at all?”

Luke looks down at his bare torso, then rubs his chest nervously. “I’m wearing pants, don’t worry!”

“Well, that’s a comfort.”

He grimaces, then reaches his arm out. A second later, I see a black silkinine robe flitter in front of the holocamera, then float behind him and drape itself onto his shoulders. He pulls the sleeves on. “There. Better?”

I gawk at him. “How...did you do that?”

“I used the Force,” he said, like it was supposed to be completely obvious to me. “My father is a Sith Lord, if you recall.”

I scoff. “Not likely to forget that.”

He pauses. “Is that why you said ‘no’?”

“I thought you didn’t want to talk about that.” I look away.

“Or is it because I frightened you?” My eyes snap back at him. I want to deny that he had any effect on me at all. But I don’t. He sighs. “I thought so, by the way you ran out of the ballroom.”

“I did not _run,”_ I retort.

“No, more like a walk that wanted to be a run.”

“Well,” I murmur, looking down at the floor and folding my arms again, “you _did_ come on a little strong, Luke.”

Luke glances away. “I suppose I did. I… thought that’s what girls liked.”

“Haven’t met a lot of girls, have you?”

I immediately regret that when I see his face. Or rather, when I don’t see his face, because he doesn’t look back at me. “No Leia, I haven’t.” But he definitely does when I laugh. I don’t mean to, it just comes out. He narrows those blue eyes at me. “Glad you find that so funny.”

“No, no Luke, I’m not laughing at you. I’m laughing at...how ridiculous the whole Ascent Eve thing is.” I shake my head. “How you’re expected to find a wife when you haven’t even really talked to a girl?” Even through the white haze of the hologram, I can see the red spreading up Luke’s face and down his neck. My shoulders slump. “I’m… just making it worse, aren’t I?”

“Yes.” But then he smiles a bit. “And no. You’re not wrong, Leia.” He looks off. “I was raised on a Star Destroyer. The only women I knew were officers and pilots. And they weren’t allowed to talk to me unless in combat.”

I think about the conversation I had with Papa on our ship coming home, about how isolated he’s been. I still try to keep it light. “So, where did you learn to woo girls like that? _The Seduction of Zephralia_ or something _?_ ”

He shoots a glare at me. “Yes, actually.”

I think my eyes are bugging. “You’ve read the _Seduction of Zephralia??”_

“All ten volumes. Father gave it to me.”

“Wait--what?” I gasp. “Darth Vader gave you all ten volumes of _The Seduction of Zephralia_ ?” He nods. My mind spins for a second, and I laugh. Again. Much to Luke’s chagrin, if his scowl is any indication. But I can’t help myself. _The Seduction of Zephralia_ is the most notorious tome of classic erotica in all of the Core Worlds. And while it is highly touted and extensively studied, calling it _frank_ would be an understatement. “Why in the galaxy would he do that?”

He smiles a bit, and seems a little embarrassed. “That’s not really a story I want to tell you right now.” That twinkle in his eyes return. “Have you read it?”

“What? No!” I answer. A little too quickly.

He leans back in his chair and folds his arms. “Then how do you know what it’s about?”

My mouth is working, but nothing’s coming out. Until… “Ok, I’ve read… a few pages.”

“The good parts, right?”

I’m suddenly feeling very warm. “Luke, please…”

His grin widens. “You’re blushing, Leia Organa.”

“No I’m not!” I try to sound stern, but I can’t wipe the smile off my face. I can’t look at him either.

He leans his elbows on his desk. “So where did you get a copy?”

“Well, certainly not from my father!” I finally look up at him. Right into those piercing blue eyes. And that dazzling smile. I rub my neck, a nervous gesture I’ll definitely need to nix when I’m Senator.. “A… classmate of mine, found Volume III on her mother’s datapad and brought it to school.”

“Oh, _lots_ of good parts in Volume III.”

I chuckle. “There we were, at least six of us, all huddled around this little datapad, taking turns reading it to each other--”

“Wait a minute-- you went to school with other children?” Luke blurts out.

I guess we’re not talking about _The Seduction of Zephralia_ anymore. Which is probably a good thing. “Well, yes.”

“But you’re royalty!”

“So? What does that have to do--”  But then I stop. “You didn’t, did you?”

“No,” he breathes, shaking his head. “Father tutored me. Mostly. Droids as well, when he would have to go on missions or into battle.” He shrugs. “I was the only child on the _Devastator_.”

I cock my head to the side. “Didn’t Lord Vader ever consider sending you to a proper school? So you could meet other children?”

“What? Never.” He sounds incredulous. Insulted even. “Leave me alone somewhere, vulnerable to assassins or kidnappers? Or worse yet, the children themselves? Fawning all over me, kissing my feet while their parents plot, hoping that I’ll elevate them and their miserable families?” A sneer mars his delicate features. “Boot-lickers and sycophants, the whole lot of them.”

A chill goes down my spine at his words. That dark arrogance has returned and I find that it doesn’t suit him at all, not after he just showed me such another side of himself. “I don’t believe for a minute that’s what you truly think of the people you are destined to serve as Emperor.”

“Serve?” Luke scoffs. “Rulers do not serve.”

“On the contrary, that’s exactly what they do.” I pull myself a little taller. “My mother is the Queen of Alderaan. Never once has she used her position to intimidate or coerce anyone into doing her bidding. She serves our people, builds them schools, housing. She takes their taxes and uses them to make their lives better, to feed the hungry and provide them medical care.” I feel my shoulders tensing with every word as I glare at him. “She certainly never uses her power to build unnecessary fleets of ships or conscript millions of people to serve a bloated military!”

“Well, then that’s her mistake!” Luke shoots back. “A powerful military is vital to keeping law and order in the galaxy! You can’t expect the _people_ to rule themselves, nor should they expect to be handed anything without earning it! The people are wicked, greedy and self-serving! Without a strong hand to guide them--”

“Meaning _force_ them--

“The galaxy would collapse into complete chaos!”

“That’s VADER talking, not you!”

Luke’s blue eyes slit. He slowly rises from his chair and plants his hands on the desk, leaning toward me with his jaw clenched. “It’s _Lord Vader_ , and you will pay him--and _me_ \-- the respect of using his proper title!”

“Respect??” I come at his image, fists clenched at my sides. “Yes, let’s talk about respect, your Imperial Highness! Who sliced into whose holocom frequency without permission? Who called who in the middle of the night? Who woke who out of a sound sleep?” I thrust a pointed finger at him. “You have a lot of gall to talk about respect when you have _none for me!”_

“How dare you!” he shouts, slamming a palm on his desk. “I am Prince Luke Vader, Heir to the Galactic Empire! No one talks to me this way!”

“Well maybe someone should!” I shout back. “Maybe if you had someone to knock you down a few pegs every once in a while, you wouldn’t be so spoiled and insufferable! Maybe you’d actually have FRIENDS!”

I watch my words hit Luke like a cannon blast. The fury melts from his face. He sinks back into his chair, his eyes lost. He presses his lips into a hard line and turns away from me. My hand flies to my mouth, and my throat clenches shut. Oh Goddess, what did I just do?

“Oh, Luke…” I take another step toward his hologram. “Luke, that was a terrible thing to say--”

“It’s alright,” he murmurs, still not looking at me. He folds his hands in front of him. “Truth is often terrible.”

“No, that wasn’t truth, that was anger. I didn’t mean it--”

“Yes you did.” But then, he laughs softly.

“What? Why are you laughing?”

He finally turns his eyes back to me. “You are truly fearless, aren’t you, Leia Organa?”

I swallow at that. “No Luke, I’m not fearless. On the contrary, I’m very afraid.”

“Of me?”

“No, not of you.” I’m afraid of… your future.

My throat constricts at the thought of Vader and the Emperor poisoning Luke against the very people he is to rule someday. I am royalty as well, so I know the pressures put on royal children. But my experience is nothing like his. I have friends from all walks of Alderaani life. I have Winter. We climb trees and run through forests, we climb mountains together and swim in lakes. We lie in the grass, soaking in the sun. We go to the theater together and listen to orchestras and see operas--

“Tell me about Alderaan.”

My breath hitches. Did he... know I was thinking about Alderaan? Then I remember who it is I am talking to-- a Force user, the son of Darth Vader, and the next ruler of the Galactic Empire. Wariness darkens my mood, and I meet his gaze with a hard stare. “Why do you want to know about Alderaan? And _what_ do you want to know about Alderaan?”

Luke immediately picks up on my suspicion. He takes a steadying breath. “I just… want to know what it’s like there. Is it nice? It looks very nice on the holonet.”

He’s being sincere. I meet his those astounding blue eyes. From whom did he inherit them? It must have been from Vader, because from the vids Papa showed me of his good friend and Luke’s mother, Padme Amidala, I remember her eyes being brown. But they are the same shape and, for a moment, I can see the same gentility in them.  “It’s beautiful,” I murmur. “Probably the most beautiful planet in the galaxy. There are mountains, SO many mountains. They’re all capped with snow.”

“Snow,” Luke repeats. His face lights up. “Have you ever touched snow? What does it feels like? Like ice?”

He’s never been in the snow _?_ But then again, he looked absolutely incredulous that I didn’t know about the Force. “That’s right.” I think I’m smiling. “But it’s not hard like ice. It’s fluffy, and it melts right there in your hands when you touch it. Sometimes, when it’s just right, you can make balls out of it and throw them.”

He frowns a little. “Why would I want to do that?”

“For fun,” I answer. “You can have snowball fights with your friends. You can even make a shelter out of snow, if you need to.”

“Well of course I know that,” Luke scoffs. But when he speaks again, the gravitas of a military instructor deepens his boyish tenor. “Basic survival training. Your TIE crash lands, you survive but your supplies are destroyed. On an ice world, shelter is the first priority, then food. Water is no problem, you’re surrounded by it. Every pilot has a homing device cold-fusioned in their helmets. Flight suits are life-supported and can withstand temperatures of minus one-eighty-four point four for seventy-two Imperial standard hours. A shelter can be built providing snow is in a workable state. A blaster shot approximately two meters above the ground should provide adequate melt.”

I gape at him. Until I stop a laugh behind my tongue.  “You can also make balls out of it and throw them at your friends.”  

Luke glares at me… until a wide grin spreads his face, followed by a hearty laugh. He leans into his hand and runs fingers through his mussed blonde hair. He’s relaxed now, more than I’ve seen him yet. I like him like this.

I sigh out my last laugh and regard him. “You haven’t ever experienced a winter anywhere?”

“No,” he sighs, cheek in hand. “The Throneworld is kept at a constant temperature. And of course, the _Devastator_ as well. Although, I have to tell you, it gets pretty cold on a Destroyer sometimes. Out in deep space.” He looks off for a moment. “I don’t make it planetside a lot. And when I do, it’s always a temperate world. Tevas doesn’t take me to many extreme climates. He doesn’t want me getting sick or injured.”

I furrow my brow. “Tevas? Who is Tevas?”

Luke suddenly winces and straightens up. “It means ‘Father’.”

“Oh. In what language?”

I swear, for a moment he looks a little scared. “I… can’t tell you that. I shouldn’t have used that word.” He looks back at me, his blue eyes almost pleading. “Forget I said it, alright?”

“Alright.” I want to see him smile again. “Can I tell you about the lilacs?”

He cants his head to the side. “Lilacs. Those are a type of flower.”

“Yes. They grow on trees and bloom in the spring. It’s spring here now in Aldera. Our home is surrounded by them. They’re so beautiful, and they have the sweetest smell.” I giggle. “When I was little, I used to pick just one-- they’re so tiny, you can pinch them between your fingers, and I’d suck the nectar out of the stem. They’re sweet.”

“What color are they?” he asks. He is so focused on my description, leaning toward me, his eyes bright, his lips pulled in a soft smile. I can’t even count how many times I’ve seen Prince Vader, on the holonet and on posters plastered everywhere, the Golden Son of the Glorious Empire. But never like this. He is, really, just a boy. A beautiful one at that…

“Leia?”

I jerk. “Huh?”

“What color are they? The lilacs?”

“Oh, yes, the lilacs.” I clear my throat. “Oh, all colors. Purple, blue, pink--”

“Like your blush,” he murmurs. And smiles.

Which I am doing right now, I’m fairly sure. I look down at my hands. “Cut that out.”

Luke frowns at me until his face suddenly brightens. “Oh, you mean ‘stop it’.”

“Yes, that’s what I mean!” I laugh. Obviously, colloquialisms aren’t a normal part of his daily conversations. Force, he really is isolated, isn’t he?

“Why? You’re so pretty when you blush. Especially with your hair down like that.” He takes a breath. “It’s so long. It’s beautiful.”

I can hear my heart in my ears.  “Luke, please, don’t do that.”

He blinks at me, then heaves a frustrated sigh. “Is it wrong to tell you you’re pretty?”

“Yes!” I turn away from him, I don’t want him looking at me. I don’t like this feeling I have. He’s… just being so different from that arrogant boy I met the other night, from just a few minutes ago. He’s charming, genuine, _real._ I’m actually starting to like him. But he’s is the son of a monster and the heir to a dictatorship. I want to hate him. I _need_ to hate him.

I whirl back around and stride toward his hologram. “Luke, why did you call me tonight?”

Luke knits his brow. “Because...I wanted to talk to you.”

“Why?” I demand.

“Because…” He anxiously grasps air in his hands, “I like you, Leia.”

“Yes, so you’ve told me.” I take a deep breath, trying to calm this irrational anger swelling inside me. “Why me, your Highness? Out of all those girls, why did you ask _me_ to dance with you? To _marry_ you??”

“Because you’re not like them!” he exclaims. “Because you’re not like anyone I’ve ever met before! You’re not spoiled, you’re not ruthless, you’re not greedy or corrupt or vain! Because--” his breath catches-- “because you’re brave, Leia. You’re not afraid of me or my father, or of Tarkin or the Emperor. You have conviction, and...heart.” He sinks back down into his chair. He drops his head in his hands. “You wouldn’t just use me for power...or as a weapon. I know you wouldn’t.”

I stand, absolutely still and stunned. I know I should say something, but I have no idea what. I clench my lips closed and look down at the floor. My chest hurts.

After a while, Luke lifts his head. “Leia, can I ask you something?” I stiffen-- Goddess, he’s not going to ask me to marry him again, is he? But I find myself nodding anyway. “Do your parents… ever argue?”

I look back up at him. “Yes, of course they do. All parents argue sometimes.”

“Do they ever argue about you?”

I raise my brows and take a breath. “I’m sure they do. But not in front of me.” He looks so tired, so defeated. “Luke, did something happen tonight? With your father?”

He looks down, and nods. “Yes, we argued.”

Alarm spikes through me. “Are you alright?”

“Oh,” he says, waving a listless hand, “Father would never harm me, don’t worry about that.”

“Oh,” I exhale. “Good.”

“But then, he and the Emperor started quarreling. Over me.” He huffs a bitter chuckle. “Trust me, you don’t want to be in the same room when they argue.” His face darkens even more.

I have only met the Emperor once in person, two years ago at a Senate function I attended with Papa. I remember feeling sick to my stomach and having a terrible headache around him. I wanted to run as far as I could from him. Force, I couldn’t stand being around him for ten minutes. How could Luke tolerate his presence for as long as he does?

I risk asking the question, “What was the argument about?” Luke stares at me, studying me, clearly struggling with whether to answer me. He wants to trust me. I find myself wanting him to trust me too. “You don’t have to tell me. But if you want to, I promise I won’t say a word about this. To anyone.”

He swallows hard and looks down at his folded hands. Another moment passes before he says, “It was about my mother.”

Adrenaline shoots up my back. But I try not to let it show. “Why did you argue about--”

“He won’t tell me anything about her,” Luke blurts softly. “I just… I think about her a lot. But every time I ask Tevas about her, he gets angry. He changes the subject or just storms out of the room. So I…” he hesitates, “I disobeyed him. I sliced into the shadow-net and found a vid of her.” He blew a sigh. “I knew he’d find out eventually, I can never lie to him. For one thing, he’d know, and for another… I don’t want to lie to him.”

My hands are shaking. I clasp them in front of me. I should leave it alone, just not say a word. But… I can’t, I have to say something. “What do you know about her, Luke?” I ask, trying to keep my voice level.

He licks his lips, gazing off. “She was Queen Amidala of Naboo. And then she was my father’s consort.” He stops. I wait. He doesn’t continue.

I lean in a little. “And?”

“And that’s it.”

This is bad. “That’s all you know about her?” He nods. Anger starts to heat my cheeks. This is worse than I expected.

“Well, I’m sure you know the rest.” A sneer mars his beautiful face. “But justice was served. Tevas avenged us. Kenobi died a dog’s death for the whole galaxy to see for what he did to her and me.”

“That’s all they told you?” My stomach roils. I am beyond furious. “They never told you about her senatorial career?”

His mouth drops open, and his eyes widen until they’re almost bugging from his head. He blinks then, trying to determine if he heard me right. “What… what do you mean? How do you…” He trails off as his breathing quickens, and I see a hard anger in his eyes. “What do you know of my mother? You can’t possibly have known her! How do you--”

“My father talks about her quite a lot. They served in the Senate together. They were very good friends.”

I swear, I can feel his shock across the lightyears. He looks at me, shakes his head. “No, no that’s not right. My mother was never a Senator. She was Queen of Naboo--”

“Yes, she was at one point. But she also served in the Republic Senate. Senator Amidala was a champion of sentient rights, and she helped pass a lot of legislation that helped countless peoples. She…” I try control my outrage over the unjustness of keeping this from him, “united the humans and the Gungans on Naboo for the first time in their history against a common enemy. She escaped the Separatists on Geonosis and led a clone company against their droid army! She even publicly challenged Chancellor Palpatine’s claim as Emperor--”

I stop. It hits me. No, no of course they wouldn’t tell him that his own mother campaigned against then Chancellor Palpatine’s ascension to Emperor. He wouldn’t know about her fiery speech before the Senate, warning them of the possibility of a totalitarian government. Of course they purged Padme Amidala Naberrie from the history archives, from the holonet, from the minds and hearts of the people; even in death, she was a threat to Palpatine. But to keep this from _her own son?_ For Vader to keep his mother’s achievements a _secret_ from him? To diminish this great lady into nothing more than a trophy and a concubine in his son’s eyes?? I thought I despised Vader before. I didn’t know what hate felt like until now.  

I watch his face crease with shock and betrayal. “Why are you lying to me, Leia?” he whispers.

“Luke,” I press, stepping toward his image, my voice shaking, “why do you think Padme Amidala’a entire senatorial record has been purged? Why do you think they never told you about her? Told you who she really was?” I stop when I am as close to the hologram as I can get. “Because she stood for everything Palpatine and your father are against. Freedom, autonomy, democracy, and true peace.”

“You’re lying,” he rasps, his lips trembling as tears shine in his eyes, “I know you’re lying.” He fights for breath, “The Jedi Obi Wan Kenobi plotted against him and the Emperor because he wanted her for himself. He kidnapped us just hours after I was born. He killed her and stole me--”

“Is that what they told you?” I know I should stop, I know this is dangerous, but I can’t. He’s got to know the truth, I can feel it down to my soul. It’s like the words are being pushed out of me. “Think about it, Luke. Do you honestly believe that your father, just hours after you were born, would leave the both of you alone and unprotected? That he wouldn’t have an entire army guarding you and your mother? That it would be that easy for Obi Wan to just come in and capture you both? Does that make any sense to you?” Even as he looks down at his desk, I can see the vacuum in his eyes. “What does your heart tell you? Search your feelings, what do they tell you?”

I don’t know why I said that. It just felt like truth.

When Luke finally finds his voice, it’s hoarse with despair. “The Emperor told me that story.” He clenches his eyes. “Tevas won’t talk about her. Ever.”  He finally raises his eyes to mine. “Leia…” I watch a tear roll down his cheek, “I always believed that story, but lately, I’ve questioned it. There’s something… that doesn’t feel right about it. That something terrible did happen, yes, but… not that.” His hands shake. “I just wish… I just wish he’d tell me about her…”

Abruptly, he gets out of his seat and walks away from the holocamera, shoulders hunched, fists clenched at his sides. I hear something creak on his end, like durasteel being crushed. The wall behind him begins to buckle and warp.

A stab of panic goes through me. Oh Force, what have I done? “Luke?” The creaking gets louder, and I hear a shriek of metal tearing apart. “Luke, stop! Whatever it is you’re doing, stop! Please stop!”

He whirls around and swipes his hand. His chair flies through the air. He barges back to the desk and slams his palms on it, his beautiful face twisted with rage. “How do you know all this?!” he roars.

I fight to catch my breath. “My father told me. He told me all about her, Luke. He wanted to carry on her legacy even if he could never say her name again in the Senate, to honor her privately even when he could never do it publicly. He instilled her values in me. She’s my idol, Luke.” I look him in the eye, even in his anger. “My middle name is Amidala. My parents named me after her.”

Luke breathes heavily, still trembling with anger and shock. “Senator Organa… knew my mother?”

I nod. “I’ve seen vids of her, Luke. He kept vids of their Senate sessions, and we’ll watch them together sometimes. I’ve studied them.”

“You have vids of her?!” he exclaims. Again, I nod. He glares at me, clawing the desktop. “Does anyone else know about these vids you have? About this information?”

His voice is so low, so cold, I can almost feel it going through me. Like Vader’s does. “No, I promise you, no one knows this but me and my parents.” The dread grips me even more when I realize what I have just said. “Luke, please, don’t hurt them! Please don’t tell your father--”

“Hide them. All of them.”

I blink. “What?” But no real sound comes from my throat.

“Out of the palace. Wipe every trace from your computer drives. Collect them and hide them somewhere no one would find them. Not even the ISB. Not even.. my father.” He took a breath, and some of the harshness faded from his face. “Do it soon, Leia. Immediately.”

I try to quell the panic rising in me. “Alright. First thing in the morning, Luke. I’ll tell Papa--”

“No, don’t tell him anything, not yet. Just get them and hide them. Tell him later. It’s...safer for all of you that way.” He stops for a moment, his brow knit in frantic thought. He catches his breath and blurts, “I’ll come and get them.”

I suck a stunned breath. “Come here? To Alderaan?”

He paces away and runs a hand through his hair, thinking. He turns back. “I’ll leave the Throneworld, tomorrow. We can meet somewhere, outside Aldera. Do you know a place? A secret place?”

My heart is thumping in my chest. “Luke, I can’t let you have them.”

He turns and comes back to the desk. His image leans towards me. His voice is soft, but his eyes are desperate. “Leia, they will be safe with me, far safer than with you. No one will ever find them, not the Emperor, not my father. These, “ his breath hitches, “are holovids of my mother. I’ll...I’ll finally be able to hear her voice.” A tear stains his cheek when he looks back up at me. “Do you think I wouldn’t guard these with my life?”

I fold my hands to keep them from shaking. It’s not working. “What if they do find them?”

“Then… I’ll say I found them on the shadow-net and give them the codes of some Outer Rim slicers or something. Father will hunt them down them, kill them, probably punish me, and it’ll be over.”

“No! Absolutely not, Luke! I won’t let innocent people die because of a lie--”

“Trust me Leia, anyone on the shadow-net is FAR from innocent. These are terrorists and drug smugglers and slavers we’re talking about here. The only reason they haven’t been caught yet is because they’re good at covering their tracks. Or they’ve been lucky.”

“No Luke, no! I can’t condone this, I can’t let Vader murder anyone--”

“Better them than you!” Luke yells, slamming his fists on the desk. I freeze in his manic, frightened stare. “Because he will, Leia, he will kill you and your whole family if he finds those vids! And I won’t be able to stop him! If what you have told me is true, your family is as good as DEAD if you don’t give them to me!”

I can’t move, I can’t even breathe. All I can do is shake. And think. “Alright. Alright Luke. I’ll go go now, I’ll get the vid chips and erase all the files from the palace computers.” I back away from his hologram. “Don’t move, don’t hang up, I’m coming right back!”

I run back into my bedroom and rifle through the tunic I wore that day, finally finding my comlink in a pocket. I rush back into the living area and plug it into the holoprojector’s bus port. “That’s my private comlink code. Can you see it?”

He looks at the code scrolling across the upper corner of his image. “Yes, I got it.” Luke’s eyes dart back and forth as he thinks. “Alright. Father is leaving in the morning on some mission. After he’s left, I’ll leave for Alderaan.”

“How will you get away?”

Luke shakes his head. “I don’t know, but I’ll think of something. I’ll com you before I hit hyperspace. It should take me about four hours.”

“Four?” I ask. “It takes twelve hours to travel from Coruscant to Alderaan.”

A smirk breaks through the tension in Luke’s face. “Haven’t flown in an Imperial corvette designed by a Sith Lord engineering genius before, have you?”

I sigh. “No.”

But his smirk evaporates. He snaps his head over his shoulder, like he heard something. I don’t hear anything, but he whirls back to me, his breathing fast and anxious. “I have to go, Leia. Now. He’s coming.” He reaches for the off-link--

“Luke!” He looks back at me. Scared as I am, I struggle to get the words out. “Luke, promise me you’ll come alone. No bodyguards, no troopers. Just you. Please.”

“I promise. Just me.” His eyes grow soft, and his lips curve into a small smile. “I’ll keep you safe Leia, I promise.”

And with that, his image winks out. The room becomes dark again, with just the slightest hint of the dawning sun coming through the windows. I stand there for many more minutes, trying to calm my breathing and my terror. But I jump and gasp when I hear Winter’s bedroom door open.

She comes out, eyeing me with worry. “Leia, what’s wrong?”

For a moment, I don’t even see her, I’m just looking through her as my mind scatters in seven different directions. Finally, I rush over to her, take her hands. “Winter, I need your help. Your very, _very_ quiet help.”

 

**Luke**

 

I stand at my desk, still staring at the emptiness that was just Leia, still trying to calm my breathing before Tevas makes it up to my floor. The Force feeds my speed when I wipe all evidence of the holocall from the projector and call the chair I threw with the Force back to me. I’ve just pushed it back under the desk when Tevas arrives.

He halts in the doorway when he sees me, his cape falling into place over his shoulders. “You’re still awake?” he rumbles.

I grip the chair and stare at him. I haven’t turned the lights on, so I can only make out the lit controls of his breast panel. My brain registers something odd about their blinking pattern, but I dismiss it in favor of my anger, which is as cold as vacuum.  “Yes, Tevas.”

He comes into the room, turning his mask, like he is sensing something. He strides to the wall I almost destroyed, all buckled and bent. “What happened here?”

I pull my robe closed around me. “I got angry,” I tell him. It is the truth, after all.

He turns back to me. “About what?”

I try to pull my shields around me as discreetly as I can, since I am lying this time. “About dinner.”

Tevas stares at me for a long while, making me nervous that he’s sensed my dishonesty. I look down at the floor, partly out of shame, but mostly because… I just can’t look at him right now. After all, he’s been lying to me too. If what Leia says is true.

Eventually, he moves to the window of my greatroom and looks out at the Throneworld skyline, his massive form in silhouette. “I was harsh with you. In front of the Emperor.” He pauses. “It will not happen again, Su’us.”

I raise my head to gape at him. “I’m sorry” are two words that will never make it into my father’s vocabulary, but I can hear the apologetic tone even through his vocoder. I clasp my hands behind my back and straighten to attention. “I was insolent, Tevas. I disobeyed you, and I raised my voice to you. You were right to discipline me.”

He looks back at me over his shoulder, but remains still. “And yet I still sense your anger toward me.”

Damn right I’m angry toward you! I was just told by a girl I met two days ago that you and the Emperor have been lying to me about my mother my whole life! But I can’t let anything on. I pull my shields tighter and hope he didn’t hear that. “It’s nothing, Tevas. It’s over. Let’s forget about it.”

He stares at me. I fortify my shields even more, expecting that he’ll try to probe my thoughts… but he doesn’t. Instead, he hooks his thumbs into his belt and walks to me. Slow, measured steps, until he stands before me. He is silent, save for his respirator, until he finally announces, “After your time here with the Emperor, I am sending you to the Austringer Flight School on Prefsbelt IV.”

I snap my eyes up to his mask, and my mouth drops. He’s…he’s... “What??”

“The next rotation of classes begins after your stay with the Emperor ends. I will retrieve you and take you there myself.”

My head spins. My body forces me to breathe again. “Tevas, why are you--”

“I am sending four Imperial Red Guards with you. You will have a private complex adjacent to the Moff Director’s. You will abide to a strict curfew and you will never go anywhere alone except for classes.” He points a black finger in my face. “That means NO JOY FLYING.”

I wince. Damn it. “You know about that.”

“I spent a good portion of my energy shielding your recklessness from the Emperor,” he snarls.  

“Yes, you excel at hiding things,” I mutter.

And instantly regret it when the temperature in the room drops many degrees. “What exactly does that mean?” Tevas rumbles so deeply, I feel it down to my feet.

Normally I would supplicate to him, avert my eyes to the floor. But I’m reeling with anger and confusion, and I feel so betrayed that I glare right at him. I want so badly to confront him about what Leia told me, but… no, not yet, not until I’ve seen the holovids of my mother, not until I know at least some of the truth. I can’t show my sabaac hand just yet. “Tevas, you have never allowed me to be anywhere you weren’t. And now you’re sending me away because I took a joy ride through The Works?? This doesn’t make any sense!”

“Very well,” Tevas mutters, and I can feel irritation hiss through our bond. “You are growing restless and bored, and your behavior is suffering because of it.” He clasps his hands behind him once more. “You need more focused attention than I can obviously provide at this time.”

“ ‘Focused attention’.” I scoff. “You mean I need a sitter.”

“I mean you need discipline!” he counters gruffly. “And structure. I have granted you too much license for your whims! The next few years will demand an extreme amount of my time, which means I cannot monitor your every impulse! Like recklessly flying through The Works for the entire Throneworld to see! Or leaving yourself prey to kidnappers and Rebels by prowling the shadow-net--”

"THAT’S what this is about, isn’t it?” I snap. “Because I found a picture of my mother!”

"The past no longer matters!” he suddenly roars at me. This time I do cringe from him. He encroaches on me. “It is time you stopped indulging this foolish obsession of yours and look to your future! You are to be an Emperor, so it is time you began behaving like one!”

My rage thrums through my veins as I glare at him. “You want me to behave like an Emperor, Tevas? Fine, I’ll start right now by giving you a command. Say her name.”

He draws up and away from me, his fists clenching at his sides. “What did you say?”

“I think you heard me,” I snarl at him as every muscle in my body shakes. “Say her name. Just once. Say it, say my mother’s name!”

“Do not goad me, young one,” he growls with slow, quiet threat.

“Say it!” My voice cracks, which it does at the most inopportune times, like this one. But I don’t let it stop me. “Padme Amidala! Say it like she mattered, say her name like she MEANT something to you!” Now my own fists clench as I feel the last shred of control fall away. “You and the Emperor can erase her from history all you like, but you can’t erase that she actually existed, because I’M HERE! You’re hiding something from me, you both are! The way you avoid speaking of her, it’s almost like you killed her yourself--”

I never see it coming, even through the Force. I never see his enormous hand bolt out of his cape and backhand me across the jaw.  

I spin so fast and hard, I don’t even see the floor coming at my face. Pain explodes across my cheek and left eye as I hit the floor hard on my elbows. The Force howls around and through me, wailing as if in terrible mourning. I don’t cry or make a sound. I don’t even breathe. All I can do is shake.

Behind me, I hear Tevas take a step toward me. Even through his vocoder, I hear the anguish in his voice. “Luke…”

“Don’t touch me!” I snarl over my shoulder at him. “Don’t come near me!”

“Luke, I…” I watch him stagger back, fists digging into his thighs, his helm bent forward, as if in shame. “Very well. I will leave you alone.” He turns to go.

“Don’t bother saying goodbye tomorrow when you leave!” I rage after him. “I don’t want to see you!”

He turns over his shoulder. “As you wish, nuyak Su’us,” he says. I watch him take a few steps to the door. Then I watch him stop. Sway on his feet. And then he falls to the floor in a huge black heap.

I blink at him, unsure if I just saw that happen. But the pain pounding through my face evaporates when I realize I can’t hear his respirator. “Tevas?” He doesn’t answer, doesn’t move. “TEVAS!”  I launch myself to my feet and run to him, falling at his side. I try to turn him over onto his back, but he’s so heavy. “LIGHTS, ONE HUNDRED PERCENT!” I shout at the illuminators. Glaring light ignites the room, stinging my eyes at first. But when they adjust to the brightness, I can actually see all of him. I suck a gasp of horror.

His cape is burned with slashing scorch marks, from collar to hem, and his helmet is actually melted in some spots. Panicking, I thrust my shoulder under his and heave with all my strength, turning him onto his back. Only then do I hear a pressurized breath, but it is weak and squeaking. His mask is scorched and buckled, and the grid of his breather is missing several bars. The burns continue all down his suit, and now I realize why his breast panel looked so strange. Several lights were melted into lumps of synthplasteel, and the ones that did still work were dim and erratic.

“Tevas! Can you _breathe_?” He doesn’t answer me-- he only reaches up to gently touch the bruise now swelling the left side of my face, and turns his mask into my shoulder. That’s all it takes for me to burst into tears. “Father, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…”

“Luke,” he croaks, gripping my arm, “Forgive… forgive me…”

“Sssh, don’t talk, I’m coming back.” I jump to my feet and run to the wall com. I slap it on. “Two-One-Bee! I need a med team up here, NOW! My quarters, bring a stretcher! My father--” I suck a breath-- “is gravely injured!”

“Med team on its way, Your Highness,” Tevas’s personal medical droid replies.

I rush back to Tevas, who is trying to raise himself into a sitting position. I put my hand on his shoulder and gently push him back down. “No Tevas, no, you rest. Help is coming.”

His chest pumps up and down in short blunt bursts as he struggles to breathe. He reaches his other hand up to caress my still-burning cheek. “I… have never raised my hand to you before,” he rasps.

I take his hand in both of mine, tears streaming down my face. “I pushed you, I made you do it--”

“No,” he insists, shaking his head, “you could never make me harm you…that was my choice.” His chest collapses as he repeats, “My choice…”, barely a whisper.

“Tevas,” I sob, pressing his hand to my forehead, “hang on, they’re coming.”

Tevas raises his head. “Luke,” he whispers. I look back up into his lenses. He takes as deep a breath as he can. “Your mother… she… she meant _everything_ to me.”

His head falls back onto the floor, and his hand goes limp in mine.

A scream explodes out of me, unlike any scream I’ve ever let out. “MEDIC!” I jump to my feet again and run out of the greatroom into the sprawling corridors of my father’s fortress. “MEDIC! HURRY! HUUUUURRRRRREEEEE!!!”

 

* * *


End file.
